Ireland captain Dan Sheehan says he has “full confidence” in his team-mates as he dismissed talk of a decline in Irish rugby as “nonsense”.
Andy Farrell’s side sit third in the world rankings, but a string of double-digit losses to South Africa, New Zealand and France have raised question marks about the team’s trajectory.
Farrell this week admitted his team are not yet ready to have realistic ambitions of winning next year’s World Cup in Australia.
But before facing Argentina, Fiji and world champions South Africa at home in this month’s Nations Championship fixtures, Sheehan insisted Ireland must “fully back ourselves”.
“I’ve full confidence in this group,” said Sheehan, who is again deputising for injured skipper Caelan Doris this month.
“I think reminding myself and the group of the quality we have…sometimes you can hear outside noise about, ‘is this a transitioning time for Irish rugby?’ or ‘is this a decline in Irish rugby?’ and I think it’s all nonsense really.
“Making sure we keep our confidence in what we have, in the personnel we have, the coaches we have in the group, it’s all set up perfectly for us. I think it’s just doubling down on our work ethic and making sure we fully back ourselves.”