Bowe: 'Ireland against England at home is always enormous'
By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin
Tommy Bowe said Ireland are raring to go against England in the Six Nations on Sunday, but are taking care not to let the emotion of the occasion overwhelm their preparations.
Speaking at today's
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"We obviously know what a massive game it is," Bowe said. "Ireland against England at home is always an enormous match."
He said the team were keeping their focus on the game itself.
"For us, the last week, and even in Galway (at the training camp) - everything has been focused towards this game," he said.
"We're not really getting carried away in the emotional side of things, looking at the bigger picture."
England have made
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Bowe was asked if the squad changes England made disrupted Ireland's preparation.
"Yes and no," he answered. Obviously we would have looked a lot at all the players they had in the squad. We wanted to make sure who was going to be selected.
"I think with the likes of (Jack) Nowell and Goode coming in, I think they're two top quality players."
He continued: "I don't think there's a huge difference from the guys they've swapped with. We'll do our homework on them, but we'll go out there with our own preparations and look to try and put our game on them as well."
Like Ireland, England come into Sunday's game undefeated so far in the tournament, but Bowe rejected the suggestion that Stuart Lancaster's side had yet to be tested.
"I think that they have," he answered. "I think certainly in the first half against Wales the Welsh did very well. They put them under a lot of pressure. They put the ball behind them and made them go back for it and squeezed them.
"We saw the Italian centre make a couple of breaks against them last week as well. There's been a couple of times they've been put under pressure."
But he acknowledged they had been able to go up a gear and shake off their opposition in the first two games.
"In the start of the second half they really seem to crack it up a level," he said.
Despite beating Italy and France, there have been questions as to whether Ireland had the ability to beat England this weekend, but Bowe finished today's press conference with bullish confidence.
"We're very excited as a team about it, we're high on confidence," he said. "I think we've played some decent rugby in the last couple of games and I think two top teams coming up against each other is going to be a massive challenge.
"As a player and as a squad I think we're very excited and we're looking forward to it.
"Hopefully it'll be a good spectacle."
