'Ireland will aim for Grand Slam in Six Nations' - Andy Farrell

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell insisted that his side is determined to repeat their Grand Slam success of the last year in the upcoming Six Nations tournament.

Ireland will kick-start their campaign on 2nd February but they will have an uphill task of playing away games against France and England and Farrell is wary of the task ahead.

"We all know that winning a Six Nations is very hard to do because of the standard of the teams what we’ve got in the competition continues to grow and that’s why we all love it," said Farrell at the tournament launch in Dublin yesterday.

"What does success look like? We want to win every game and winning matters. I’ve never been one from shying away from that. I’ll say the same.

"But we’re realists and we know that it’s difficult."

Earlier, Peter O’Mahony said he wanted to announce retirement at the end of the World Cup in France but later delayed his decision and is now named Ireland's new team captain.

"I always speak to players, no matter what," Farrell said on the Munster flanker.

"To me, it's the same as anything. It's about how you're performing and how you’re playing.

"Certainly, whether your form warrants getting selected and whether your body can do that.

"I think those type of decisions as far as that's concerned becomes pretty obvious if you're allow what's pretty natural to happen, 'I didn't have to persuade him, no."