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'Surprised? Yes and no' - Farrell responds to shock Finn Russell axing
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.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Billy's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
28 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to comments