Ireland have the emotional and rugby intelligence to beat Scotland

ALL SET: Dan Sheehan during Ireland's captain's run at the Stade de France in Paris. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Forget the permutations, shut out the Scottish bravado. Ireland have more than enough of what it takes to see off their Celtic cousins at Stade de France Saturday night and move onto next weekend’s World Cup quarter-finals.

It will not be easy of course, and the worriers among Ireland’s growing army of supporters have justifications for pre-match nerves, this is a match-up of two top-five rugby nations after all. Yet while this final Pool B fixture has plenty of potential pitfalls for the world number one side and 2023 Grand Slam winners, their favouritism is entirely justified and nothing heard from either camp in this week’s build-up has suggested otherwise.