Josh van der Flier says Ireland are “mature enough” to “get ourselves right” in time to face Scotland after a heartbreaking 23-22 Six Nations defeat by England.
Marcus Smith’s late drop-goal ended Ireland’s back-to-back Grand Slam bid in Saturday’s Twickenham thriller.
But Van der Flier has no doubt Ireland will regroup before hosting Scotland with the championship on the line.
“Definitely,” he said when asked if the response will be the mark of this team.
“One thing I find when you get on a winning run, it’s not easy, but you just get used to winning, it’s a habit almost.
“You’re just on the right side of things. You’re not panicking when you’re down. I think when you do lose a game, which happens eventually, it’s so important not to lose what worked so well.
“It’ll be a big test but we’re mature enough as a team at this stage that we’ll be able to get ourselves right and realise that it’s very much in our control.”
England produced their best performance under head coach Steve Borthwick to stun Ireland and stop Andy Farrell’s side from securing a record 12th straight championship win, although the Irish will retain the title if they beat Scotland this Saturday.
Speaking post-match, Farrell said England “deserved” to win as Borthwick’s team kept alive their faint hopes of a first Six Nations title since 2020.
However, 2022 World Rugby player of the year Van der Flier felt as though victory was in Ireland’s “grasp” at Twickenham after they led with a minute on the clock only for Conor Murray’s kick into the stands to give England one last attack, which culminated in Smith’s match-winning kick.
“You have to give credit to England, they were very good,” Van der Flier said.
“But on the other side of it, what makes it so disappointing is we had it on our grasp and probably just a few errors, a bit of ill-discipline and a couple of moments where we could have done better.
“It was a tight game. It’s very disappointing. We’ve spoke about it there, it’s about getting recovered now and the opportunity to win a championship this week is pretty incredible so you have to recover from it quickly.”
England had been criticised following their defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield, and while Ireland were heavy pre-match favourites, Van der Flier insists there was no complacency in the Irish camp heading to Twickenham.
“Any time you play England, regardless of how they’re playing as a team, you look at the individuals,” he said.
“They’re obviously a brilliant team. They haven’t had the consistency they would have liked but playing England at Twickenham as an Irishman is nearly as big a game as it gets and you want to be playing at your best.
“I wouldn’t say we had any complacency going in but it’s hard to take.”