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'Surprised? Yes and no' - Farrell responds to shock Finn Russell axing
By PA
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has challenged his players to produce their best performance of the Guinness Six Nations and prevent Scotland spoiling the Dublin party.
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Victory over the Scots on Saturday will secure the Triple Crown, while a subsequent slip-up from Grand Slam-chasing France against England in Paris would leave Farrell’s side celebrating the championship title.
Ireland have not lifted silverware on home soil for 18 years and Farrell is determined to seize a rare opportunity at the Aviva Stadium.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position to do that, which is nice,” he said.
“But, as you would expect me to say, it’s just about this game, about our preparation.
“We’re under no illusions that Scotland are going to be at their best, nothing to lose, a great side coming to the Aviva trying to spoil a little bit of a party.
“How do you manage that? You get across your preparation and you make sure that you take your learnings.
“And hopefully we’re after our best performance of the tournament.”
Ireland began the competition by brushing aside defending champions Wales and then recovered from a narrow defeat away to title rivals France by seeing off Italy and England.
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Meanwhile, Scotland faded fast from the jubilation of retaining the Calcutta Cup and are now bidding to avoid finishing second bottom of the standings.
Farrell has made three changes to his starting XV following last weekend’s 32-15 win over 14-man opposition at Twickenham.
Lock Iain Henderson and wing Mack Hansen replace James Ryan and Andrew Conway in enforced alterations, while Jack Conan is preferred to Peter O’Mahony in the back row following his try-scoring cameo in London.
Headline team news from the Scottish camp was Gregor Townsend’s eyebrow-raising decision to drop talisman Finn Russell in favour of Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn.
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Farrell says the visitors’ surprise selection will not affect his side’s plans.
“No it doesn’t,” said Farrell. “(Am I) surprised? Yes and no. I think everyone was expecting Finn to play, he’s a great player.
“But Blair, I watched the Connacht game (a 56-8 loss to Edinburgh on March 4) and he was the best player on the field by a country mile.
“We know him well, we know his strengths: very dangerous with ball in hand, takes the line on, very dangerous counter attack-wise, good passing game, good kicking game as well.
“It’s a big game for him coming over to the Aviva, but I suppose Gregor’s had a look at him and picked on form because his last game for Edinburgh was outstanding.”
Although the Scots have suffered six successive defeats to Ireland and not won in Dublin since 2010, Farrell remains wary of their threats.
“They’re a good side,” he said. “We’ve had some really tough tussles with them of late.
“The last couple of campaigns in the Six Nations, I think they’ve lost four games and they’ve all been lost by one score. They’re a tough team to play against, a tough team to beat.
“They’re dangerous with ball in hand as well, so obviously that focuses he mind.
“We expect them to come out all guns blazing and we expect to take all the learnings from our Six Nations and put it all out there on Saturday.”
