Preview: Ireland vs Scotland (Saturday, 4:45pm)
Ireland have named an unchanged team as they host Scotland looking to secure back-to-back titles for only the second time in the Six Nations era.
The Emerald Isle’s hopes of becoming the first back-to-back Grand Slam winners since Italy joined the tournament were dashed as they were beaten by England last week, but they still have the chance to lift the title in Dublin once again.
The only change to their squad sees backs Garry Ringrose and Harry Byrne step onto the bench in place of the concussed Ciaran Frawley and second row Iain Henderson, with coach Andy Farrell reverting to a 5-3 split of forwards to backs on the bench rather than the 6-2 he deployed last week.
Scotland boss Gregor Townsend makes the same change to the structure of his bench, while handing Stafford McDowall only his second cap with a start in the centres and bringing Ben White back into the starting lineup after being rested for last week’s defeat to Italy.
“The frustration is that we’re not going to Dublin on the back of four wins,” Townsend said.
“We feel we had a win taken away from us against France, and obviously Italy deserved their win but we feel we could have been better that day.
“But we have this game ahead of us to show our best performance of the season.
“We’re still playing for something, not just a place in the table, it’s for a trophy (the Triple Crown), and also we’re playing one of the best teams in the world so that’s got to inspire us to deliver our best rugby.
“It’s weird to think we’re the only team that can win the Triple Crown but the focus is on the performance.
“We know we have to play our best rugby this week. We’re away to Ireland and it’s the ultimate challenge in the game right now. The huge motivator for us is to try and deliver our best rugby of the season.”
Ireland have dominated this fixture in recent years, winning 13 of the last 14 games between the two sides including a recent 36-14 drubbing at last year’s Rugby World Cup.
Scotland have not won on the Lansdowne Road site where the Aviva Stadium now sits this century, with their only win in Ireland in the last 26 years coming in the final game of the hosts’ temporary stay at Croke Park while the Aviva was being constructed.
“We know how tough it’s going to be,” Townsend added. “They’re one of the top two teams in the world and at home they’ve been virtually unbeatable the last few years so it’s going to require something special from our players.
“We’ve got to accept that they’ll score points on Saturday. I think before (losing 23-22 to) England they were averaging 30 points a game, so it will be a test for our defence, and we have to score points.
“We have to get to 20 or more, which will be tough but we believe we can do that against any team.”
IRELAND: Keenan; Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe; Crowley, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong; McCarthy, Beirne, O’Mahony (capt), Van der Flier, Doris.
Replacements: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Baird, Conan, Murray, H Byrne, Ringrose.
SCOTLAND: Kinghorn, Steyn, Jones, McDowall, Van Der Merwe, Russell, White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, Gilchrist, Cummings, Christie, Darge, Dempsey.
Replacements: Ashman, Sutherland, Millar-Mills, Skinner, M Fagerson, Horne, Redpath, Rowe.
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