Ireland stand in the way of Wales’ ambitions in Warren Gatland’s final championship game as head coach.
His record breaking side are on a 13-game winning streak, but Ireland will be out to spoil the party at the Principality Stadium on Saturday. After battling their way into pole position, Moriarty is planning to seize the rare opportunity to write their names down in tournament history.
“This is my first opportunity of doing this and it’s what we set out to do at the beginning,” he said. “Apart from winning a World Cup it is the biggest thing for anyone in the northern hemisphere, so I’d be really happy to achieve one.
“We’ve been building nicely over 13 games and against Ireland we won’t take a backward step to try and continue the streak. They are a good team and we know what they are capable of.”
Ireland still have hopes of snatching the Guinness Six Nations trophy. Gatland’s men have based their four championship victories on a rock solid defence that has only leaked six tries so far.
The heroic defensive effort against Scotland in Round 4 left Moriarty and Co. battered and bruised.
But the Dragons back-rower is not about to let all their hard graft count for nothing with only 80 minutes standing between them and silverware.
“There’s been a lot of hard graft, a lot of carries, a lot of tackles but it’s been nice to get the games in and build up some momentum.
“For every game at international level, you know that you can’t slip up. I say to myself every time that we go into a game that I am fighting for my spot. One mistake could mean I am out, and nobody wants that.
“Sometimes people don’t see the hard graft but against Scotland it showed across the board with all the forwards and all the backs, it was a big heavyweight slog. We’ve had some difficult games in the Six Nations but we are ready to go again.”
