Farrell: 'Putting pressure on France is what we’re about'

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell

Ireland boss Andy Farrell is relishing the opportunity to play for the Triple Crown on home soil this Saturday when his side completes its 2022 Guinness Six Nations campaign at the Aviva Stadium.

The national team’s championship successes over the last 13 years have all been secured away from home with Ronan O’Gara’s drop goal to secure the 2009 Grand Slam for Declan Kidney’s side coming in Cardiff, Joe Schmidt’s back-to-back titles claimed in Paris and Edinburgh and the 2018 Grand Slam completed at Twickenham.

The 32-15 bonus-point victory over 14-man England on Saturday sets up a final-round clash with Scotland in Dublin this weekend with victory ensuring a first Triple Crown in four years and fifth of the Six Nations era.

An Ireland win would also send them to the top of the table, ahead of Grand Slam-chasing France whose own title bid goes to the wire in the last match of the championship on Saturday evening when they host England in Paris.

“It’s what we want,” Farrell said. “The ideal part for everyone starting the competition, they all want to go for a Grand Slam. There’s only one team that’s allowed to do that but we’re onto the next task and the next task for us is making sure that we prepare unbelievably well for what is a massive occasion for us at Aviva Stadium playing for a trophy.

“Playing for the Triple Crown is huge for us and performing and putting pressure on France is what we’re about but at the same time we know that Scotland will want to finish the competition off really well. 

“We know that they’re a hell of a side as well so we’ve got to make sure that we recover properly, be honest with ourselves, take the learnings, and make sure we’re ready for a final next week.” The message from the Ireland camp all week in the build-up to the England game was that the team wanted to claim an away victory as the next step in their development towards the 2023 World Cup in France. Farrell’s squad had come up short at Stade de France in round two last month but they overcame a stubborn and resilient England side reduced to 14 men for more than 78 minutes to tick that box and with the ultimate challenge of a summer tour to New Zealand to play a three-Test series against the All Blacks looming, the head coach believes his team took a significant step on their journey in this championship campaign.

“They’re huge, huge. I’ve said all along, the harder the task, the harder the game, the harder the occasion for us, the better it’s going to be for us. We want to play these types of games and we want to be under this type of pressure to see where we’re at and see if we can come through it and what we can learn and keep pushing forward because it doesn’t get any harder, does it, the next away game. So it’s exactly where we want to be.”