Six Nations:Andrew Trimble has revealed that a rousing speech from Paul O'Connell inspired an Ireland victory and denied England the Grand Slam at the weekend.

All the frustrations of a troubled Six Nations campaign were taken out on England, whose Grand Slam hopes were extinguished with a comprehensive 24-8 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.

It was a stunning result that Trimble believes was triggered by a call-to-arms from Lions captain O’Connell in the build-up to the match.

“I always love listening to O’Connell during England week,” said Trimble, Ireland’s Ulster winger. “He’s always got something special to say and it always has the desired effect.

“I knew it was coming, I was thinking ‘he’s going to say something class’ and he did. He never lets you down during an England week. He’s massively motivated and that inspiration filtered through to the rest of the team. Everybody was unbelievably up for it.

“We wanted to get everything right technically, but we also wanted to get our physicality, our intensity, everything....just a real hatred.

“I can’t give too much away about exactly what he said and I’d be paraphrasing so I couldn’t do him justice. It was very inspirational though.”

The result extended Ireland’s winning sequence against their Six Nations rivals to seven victories in eight meetings, yet Trimble insists England’s scalp remains as precious as ever.

“Everybody’s massively motivated against England. We never get sick of beating them and that’s why we enjoyed the win so much,” he said.

“There’s a lot of history there and everyone in the team wants to beat them. Every team wants to beat England and we’re no exception.

“Credit to them, they were trying to get a Grand Slam, but we were unbelievably motivated to stop that happening.”