Kay - thrilled with Grand Slam success.

By Ben Kay

ENGLAND stormed to their first Grand Slam victory in eight years after beating Ireland 42-6 at Lansdowne Road. In his exclusive column with Tetley's, Official Beer of England Rugby, England star Ben Kay looks back on the thrilling decider of this season's RBS 6 Nations.

ABSOLUTELY brilliant – that's how it feels to win the Grand Slam.

Throughout the Six Nations, we wanted to build towards our best performance of the season – and that's exactly what we felt this was.

There's no doubt that we needed to play at our best against the Irish. They are formidable at Lansdowne Road and, like us, came into this match unbeaten in the championship. There was so much at stake for both sides.

It was the sort of game that we had hoped it would be. We played very direct which is what we had tried but failed to do in the last few games.

The great thing for us was that the Irish were so physical and kept going. There was no way we could ease our foot off the pedal for a minute because they were playing so hard.

We never expected to win by so many points. We thought it would be tight for the first 60 minutes.

We believed in our ability to attack and once the Irish had to start chasing the game, they were bound to make a few mistakes.

Everybody was delighted with the performance and the atmosphere in the changing room after the game was fantastic. It's something I will savour for a long time.

It has put us in great shape for the World Cup, but that is still a long way off. All the teams going out there have time to get themselves right.

I think the last time, the French lost games in the Six Nations and went on to do great things in the World Cup which only goes to show that a lot can happen between now and then.

What this has shown is that England can win in a hostile environment which is crucial going into the World Cup.

Winning the Grand Slam is definitely a big bonus for us and is just the kind of confidence boost we needed, but it will not make us arrogant.

There was a lot of talk before the game about us finally being able to lay the Grand Slam ghost to rest, but that was not a massive thing for us. It will, however, take some of the pressure off.

We've won and now we will want to push on from here. Before we do, there will be a few celebrations to be had.

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