Devin Toner and some of his Grand Slam colleagues.

Toner & Co to receive warm Aviva welcome

UPDATE: Homecoming was postponed due to weather conditions.

 

Ireland's Grand Slam heroes including, Devin Toner, will receive a warm welcome when they return to Dublin today as expected. 

A reception has been planned for the team at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon, 4.30, with tickets for the event free. The tickets can be acquired from Ticketmaster.  

Toner came on in the second-half as Ireland won only their third ever Grand Slam at Twickenham yesterday when they defeated England 24-15. Ireland had previously won Grand Slams in 1948 and 2009 but they were left with a huge task going into yesterday's encounter at the home of English rugby.

However they produced an excellent first-half display with Garry Ringrose, CJ Sander and Jacob Stockdale powering over for tries, converted by Johnny Sexton to lay down the platform for victory. 

A Conor Murray penalty turned out to be Ireland's only second-half score but some heroic defending helped to see them through. 

Toner came on and played his part in helping to keep the English out in the tense closing stages. The Moynalvey man has been one of Joe Schmidt's go-to players since the New Zealander took charge but was surprisingly left out of the starting team for yesterday's game. 

He was eventually given the chance to play his part in the second-half as this Ireland ream marched into history. A huge crowd is expected at the Aviva for today's homecoming party.