Andy Farrell sticking with most of his frontliners for vital Scotland clash

Patrick McCarry

Ireland are in the box seat, but a rare Scottish win could yet sink our World Cup hopes.

Andy Farrell has made some minor tweaks to his Ireland team to face Scotland, ahead of their Saturday evening clash in Paris.

Having set an Irish record for a World Cup winning margin, against Romania, then defeated Tonga 59-16, Farrell’s men pipped South Africa 13-8 in a tense classic. Ireland need just two points to top Pool B, but defeat without a try-scoring or losing bonus point could yet see them eliminated. Hopefully, we will not need the abacus on Saturday night.

Ireland (v Scotland):

15. Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) (34 caps)
14. Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians) (19)
13. Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) (55)
12. Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) (50)
11. James Lowe (Leinster) (24)
10. Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(captain) (116)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster) (28)

1. Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) (57)
2. Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) (19)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) (70)
4. Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) (44)
5. Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) (77)
6. Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) (99)
7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) (55)
8. Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) (34)

Replacements:

Ronan Kelleher, David Kilcoyne, Finlay Bealham, James Ryan, Jack Conan, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, Stuart McCloskey.

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Ireland team members Jack Conan, Garry Ringrose, captain Jonathan Sexton, Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Furlong. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)

Mike Catt on challenge facing this Ireland team

Assistant (and attack) coach Mike Catt was up for media duty, earlier this week, and discussed what is coming down the road for this Ireland team.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “I think the way Scotland play and the way we play we are both attacking teams and we love playing with ball in hand. I think if you go back to the Six Nations game Scotland were very good against us and probably came out of that wishing they got a little bit more. We understand what they are capable of doing, there is huge respect there.

“On our guys, we have a few who are on top of their game at the moment. Bundee [Aki] is on a great run at the moment so let’s hope we can continue to do that. It’s going to be a great clash.”

On the wild conspiracy and scoreline theories that have sucked in some South African rugby fans – and head coach Jacques Nienaber – Catt had a firm response.

“That stuff is just white noise in the background,” he said. “No we are not going to go in cahoots with Scotland.”