Andy Farrell: 'Darcy Graham and Scotland feel we're there for taking — and rightly so' 

SILVER LINING: Scotland's Darcy Graham with the The Auld Alliance Trophy. Pic: Andrew Milligan/PA

Andy Farrell says Scotland’s Darcy Graham is “entitled to his opinion" that Ireland are there for the taking when the teams meet on the last day of the Six Nations in Dublin this weekend.

The Scots haven’t beaten Ireland in eleven meetings but they come to Ballsbridge on the back of three straight wins since an opening day loss in Rome. The last of those was a stunning 50-40 defeat of Championship leaders France in Murrayfield.

Ireland have also claimed a hat-trick of victories since they fell well short of the French in Paris on opening night, but their signature performance of the Championship is three weeks behind them in the form of a superb showing in London.

"I think they’re ⁠there for the taking," Graham said after that France win in Edinburgh. “They’ve probably not been firing as well as they have in previous campaigns. They’re still a world-class team, and it’s a difficult place to go.

“I’ve never been there and won, and I can’t even remember the ‌last time we won there. It’s been a long time. But our confidence is right up there. We’ll go there full guns blazing,"

Graham was one of 13 Scottish players who played a part on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia that was helmed by Farrell last summer and the Englishman wore a wide smile when the winger’s comments were being put to him.

“He’s entitled to his opinion, first and foremost,” said Farrell on Thursday afternoon. “He’s a great lad, Darcy, actually. Obviously I got to know him on the Lions. It’s how he feels and how the squad feels, and rightly so, in my opinion.

“They were outstanding last week against France and we have been preparing for another Scottish performance like that. We know that we’ll have to be at our best to beat them as they are a side that we have always respected.” 

Farrell also explained that the calf injury keeping James Ryan out of this round five showdown had been suffered in the course of last week’s ten-point win over Wales and that it had only flared up to a serious degree a few days later.

Still not late enough to seriously disrupt selection plans for this one, apparently, with Farrell choosing Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne in his second row and Darragh Murray coming on to the bench for what should be his Six Nations debut.

The head coach praised the Connacht man’s patience having travelled with the team to Portugal for the pre-tournament training camp. Add in the returned Bundee Aki to the bench and Ireland are poised to use 35 players over the course of this event.

The first of three games on the day this Saturday, the winner will claim the Triple Crown but will have to wait and see if England can do a number on France in the late game and thus hand the winner of the Dublin game a Championship title with it.

Farrell admits that the thought has crossed his mind.

“Dreaming big? Well, of course you would love to dream like that. Obviously, the rest of it is out of our hands, but there's something that's in our hands and we're concentrating on performance first and foremost.

“But it's something that's pretty special to us, that's the Triple Crown. You know, over the years it's been hard to come by when you play for Ireland, so we're desperate to make sure that we get across that.”