"Anyone could win" - Josh van der Flier: Ireland hunt Triple Crown in closest Six Nations in memory

The Leinster back row expressed how he can't remember the Six Nations had been quite so close, with Either France, Scotland or Ireland set to lift the title come the conclusion of 'Super Saturday.' Van der Flier believes that this is a testament to the competition, with his side focussed on the task at hand being the Triple Crown. As the Six Nations title falls beyond the realms of Ireland's control, van der Flier revealed the mentality heading into the shot at silvereware.

"Not off the top of my head, no [can't recall a Six Nations being so close]. It’s mad I haven't really looked through the table in great detail, but I know we're kind of just focused on this week and getting a win.

"There's the Triple Crown at stake, so I think that's probably enough to focus on. But yes, it is mad. It's a testament to the competition. I was looking at all the fixtures, anyone could win any game it seems which is great for the competition.

"It's pretty cool to be involved in a tournament that's going so close. Obviously, I’d rather from an Irish perspective if it was very one-sided. But, no, it is a great contest, good final weekend."

Whilst the round-robin element of the Six Nations does not bring about a finale in the traditional sense, van der Flier revealed how there is quite the 'Cup Final' feel around the camp, which has put an extra spring into the step of the Ireland players.

"It's unbelievably special at any stage in anyone's rugby career, to get to play a game where there's a trophy on the line, particularly for your country. It's pretty special.

"I remember supporting Ireland, obviously, all my life, Leinster as well, but particularly Ireland. Anytime there was even a chance of silverware, it was always an unbelievably exciting time. So it's pretty cool to be involved in a squad that has a chance, a game, to have a go at a bit of silverware."

Ireland have successfully turned their Six Nations campaign around, since their heavy opening round defeat to France. There was plenty of talks that Andy Farrell's men were enduring a 'downward spiral' from the proceeding Autumn Nations Series defeats to New Zealand and South Africa.

However, the latest trio of wins over Italy, England and Wales has reinvigorated a positive buzz around the men in green. Van der Flier called upon this as his stand-out positive from the Six Nations campaign.

"Yeah, it's brilliant from the lads, the coaches, the players. It's obviously not an ideal start, the France game." Van der Flier added. "Everyone would have seen it but we've kind of worked pretty hard, and I thought the performances have improved.

"We've learned from the things that didn't go so well and try and develop. That's something that Andy very much focuses on all the time, more continual development than necessarily always winning games.

"That was probably the most pleasing thing about the last few weeks has been going from a performance we weren't too pleased with to a lot of or a few pretty decent performances and improvements in that way. We're going in the right direction and hopefully we can put in our best performance this weekend."

Having played their respective fourth round match under the Friday night lights of the Aviva Stadium, the Ireland players had the latest weekend to sit back and enjoy the other matches from the weekend. Van der Flier expressed how it has been quite surreal, in how his side have gone from cheering on Scotland for their exhaustive 50-40 win over France, to preparing how to best nullify Gregor Townsend's side.

"It was a funny one alright because obviously for the tournament, it helped us that Scotland would win. Then you're kind of thinking, 'we have to play against them as well, as good as they played'. So it's a mix in that way. I tried to just watch it [Scotland vs France] neutrally as hard as that is to do sometimes.

"I thought Scotland were brilliant. France, I'm sure they would have been disappointed with some areas of their game but I thought Scotland were very good, they deserved the win. They played really well throughout the tournament so it’ll be a big challenge this weekend."

The Leinster back row went on to express how the incoming Scotland side could well be the best version of the team that he has ever come up against. Ireland have a steady track record against Scotland in recent years, with the Emerald Islanders winning the past 11 Celtic clashes between the two sides.

"They're on top form, best form. I can ever really remember. I’ve seen them good in parts but they're pretty consistently been very good. So it'll be a big challenge, they'll be good."

"I think we'll have to be at our best, for sure. Scotland have been very good. They’re playing with a lot of confidence. It seems all their players are pretty much playing really well, a well-coached team as well. So I think we'll have to be very much at our best. That's certainly the way we're preparing for it anyway is we know we need to be as good as we can be and see where that takes us."

Whilst van der Flier would love nothing more than to guide Ireland to the Triple Crown this weekend, the back row is not 'outcome focused' in the proceeding week. The 32-year-old operates at his best once he keeps his head down and goes about his preparations like any other week - a system in which he hopes will reap the rewards of a fourth straight win for his side in the Six Nations.

"I don't know how coaches feel or other players necessarily, but I kind of just go about – it’s boring enough - but I go about my preparation the same way, and make sure I've got everything right.

"I'm coming into the game knowing I did everything to play as well as I could and perform as well as we could. That's kind of how I'm looking at it, it’s certainly the impression I get from the other lads as well.

"Obviously, you can get drawn into those things. You get outcome-focused, or the pressure can get to you sometimes. But I find the best way anyway for me is to just focus on our performance and our preparation. Preparing as well as we can, and just giving our all then.

"It [Six Nations title chance] obviously adds a bit of excitement, for sure but I always find you can't get too caught up in it. That's certainly my perspective on it anyway. Adds to the excitement, adds to maybe a little bit of nerves. But overall, just trying to put out our best performance."