Ireland ‘ruthless’ in Triple Crown win – Farrell

Head coach Andy Farrell said Ireland had a “ruthless edge” in Saturday’s 43-21 win over Scotland, which secured a fourth Triple Crown in five years.

Ireland scored six tries in a thrilling game in Dublin as Farrell’s side denied Scotland a first Triple Crown since 1990.

Tommy O’Brien scored two late tries to secure the win after the Irish defence held off a barrage of Scotland pressure.

Jamie Osborne, Dan Sheehan, Robert Baloucoune and debutant Darragh Murray had earlier crossed for Ireland.

Ireland can still win the Six Nations but need England to beat France in the final game of the tournament at 20:10 GMT.

Farrell said that Scotland “kept banging the door down” but he was thrilled with how his players responded in Dublin.

“I thought we had a ruthless edge to us in how we defended and converted in their 22,” Farrell said in his post-match press conference.

Farrell added he was “proud as punch” about Ireland’s performance, and said there was a bigger picture to this year’s tournament.

Ireland started the Six Nations by losing to favourites France, but responded with a gritty win over Italy.

They impressed in a victory over England, but were then pushed all the way by Wales in their penultimate game in Dublin.

“Winning matters but what’s happened over the eight weeks matters more to us in the sense that there is a lot of firsts, with first caps, first Six Nations and first taking it to the final week when it matters for quite a few people in our group,” Farrell added.

“How our group have come together and navigated their way through that is pretty special so we grow massively because of it, and the group has become more resilient because of that.”

While the destination of the Six Nations trophy is out of their hands, Farrell reiterated he was delighted with another piece of silverware.

“That’s five trophies in five years for us,” he added on ITV.