Andy Farrell & Caelan Doris react to Ireland's Triple Crown win - 'unique' to cheer on England
Rugby NewsSaturday, 14 March 2026 at 18:08
Ireland have secured the Triple Crown in a triumphant finale to their 2026 Guinness Men's Six Nations campaign, as the men in green racked up a 43-21 victory over Scotland at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland ran in six tries against a gutsy Scottish outfit, to claim the Home Nations bragging rights and keep the door open for the overall Six Nations title.
Watch the Guinness Six Nations at your local Greene King sports pub.
Now all eyes turn to Paris, as the Ireland team will be albeit begrudgingly cheering on England in the final match of the Championship. Should England pick up the win over France in the late evening fixture, then Ireland will take home the title following a tremendous run of four consecutive wins.
After the victory over Scotland, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was joined in the press conference room by his captain Caelan Doris, to give their immediate reactions to the Triple Crown delight. Here are the five biggest talking points from the match, as Ireland finished their Six Nations on a real high.
5 TALKING POINTS: ANDY FARRELL & CAELAN DORIS REACT TO TRIPLE CROWN WIN
1. CAELAN DORIS ADMITS 'UNIQUE' SCENARIO TO NOW CHEER ON ENGLAND IN SIX NATIONS FINALE
Ireland fans far and wide now find themselves at a cross-roads. The men in green have kept the door ajar for a late push for the Six Nations title, only if England can now get the job done and pick up the win in the Super Saturday closer against France.
In a surreal experience at the Aviva Stadium, pockets of Ireland fans actually began breaking out into choruses of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot', with the message sent to England to win the title for them in Paris. Ireland captain Caelan Doris admitted how it is quite the unusual scenario to find himself now supporting Steve Borthwick's side, as England look to spoil France's plans of a successful title retention.
CAELAN DORIS: "It's unique, as an Irish man, be cheering them [England] on! We certainly will be tonight, the usual function upstairs. Enjoy a few beers, enjoy the Triple Crown, it's special. We reflected on that during the week, and now, until the last kind of 15 years or so, it's not a commonly done thing here, so we'll enjoy that for what it is, and obviously be watching on."
2. 'A CAMPAIGN OF FIRSTS' - ANDY FARRELL PROUD OF HIS NEWCOMERS AS IRELAND ENTER A NEW ERA
Ireland approached the 2026 Six Nations in the midst of a real 'injury crisis', with a plethora of their more established top stars side-lined through injuries. The likes of Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Robbie Henshaw and a suspended Bundee Aki thinned out the back-line, along with a heavily hit forward pack with a reduced depth chart across the immediate front row options.
Farrell would introduce a fresh crop of faces to the senior Ireland camp, and bring back an assortment of former fringe players for the tune-up week out in Quinta do Lago, Portugal. After an opening round loss to France was an underwhelming way to start the tournament, the past four test weeks introduced plenty of exciting talents to the Six Nations stage, with Ireland debuts, first starts and maiden tournament caps all collected throughout the campaign.
ANDY FARRELL: "I'm proud as punch of everyone involved, it's been a hell of an eight weeks and winning matters, but what's happened over that eight weeks matters more to us in a sense that there's a lot of firsts with the first caps, first Six Nations, first taking it to the final week when it matters for quite a few people in our group.
"How the group have come together and navigated their way through that has been pretty special, so therefore we grow massively because of it and the group has become more resilient because of that."
"You look at the lads who took the field today and it was their first tournaments. Somebody like Darragh Murray to come in, played his first caps in the summer, but to come in and score the try and charge down (a kick), his lineout was great, all of that. Mikey Milne, to perform like he did and come on, you could go through it like that and talk about everyone, but for me there's a couple of standout stories as well.
"The Tom O'Toole thing [moving from tight-head to loose-head] is amazing. It's amazing what he's done, he should be unbelievably proud of himself because it's a tough thing to do, but how he's handled it, and you saw the scrum today, how he stood up is a fantastic story."
3. AWARD WORTHY: STUART MCCLOSKEY AND ROB BALOUCOUNE SHINE ONCE AGAIN FOR IREAND
There has been plenty to celebrate back in Belfast, as Ulster have delivered an excelling assortment of players to the Ireland squad having previously been an overlooked province in recent years. The coaching staff of Richie Murphy and Mark Sexton has breathed fresh belief into Ulster, as the likes of Tom O'Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Tom Stewart, Bryn Ward and Jacob Stockdale were propelled into the training camp.
However, the two stand-out Ulster stars of the Championship have been centre Stuart McCloskey and wing Robert Baloucoune. The duo have linked up time and again in green, with their telepathic teamwork showcased in Ireland's stunning third try this afternoon. Baloucoune collected McCloskey's wide miss-pass, for a stellar break and a score in the corner. The wing known around Ulster circles as 'Cat' picked up the Rising Player of the Championship Award, with Farrell backing McCloskey to win the competitions' best individual accolade.
ANDY FARRELL: "Stu McCloskey, he should definitely be in the running for player of the tournament. But for him to back it up five games on the trot is new, certainly in this format, but to perform and be consistently performing to that higher level is amazing, and it's all because he's playing in a squad that's unbelievably close and connected to one another."
"Well, we've seen some amazing finishes [from Rob Baloucoune] and we saw another one today. I think it's pretty similar to Stu (McCloskey). I mean, to be given his start to deliver and go on to the next one and on to the next one and be consistently good, it's pretty hard to do at this level when it's something that's new to you.
"He has grown massively in confidence. We've seen that daily in camp. It's what you do with that now, isn't it, when you go out of camp and how you progress over the next coming months and see what we can do in the summer.”
4. ANDY FARRELL'S PRE-SIX NATIONS MESSAGE SHONE IMPORTANCE UPON THE INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS
Casting his mind back to the Six Nations preparation camp back at Portugal, Andy Farrell revealed how he asked every member of the squad to stand up in a meeting, if they had not yet collected 10 Test caps. In a solid statement to showcase the importance of the inexperienced players within his group, plenty of new coming talents stood up in that meeting, and have since gone on to take staring roles throughout the Championship.
ANDY FARRELL: "You could put Jamie Osborne in that as well. He came back into the squad and it was amazing, because we got all the lads under 10 caps to stand up and Jamie stood up at the start of the tournament, and you think he's an experienced bloke, but he's not at this level. He played no rugby.
"He had a shoulder injury all season and he played no rugby at all. He's playing in a position that he's played for us before, but only once or twice. And he's played every game there and shone like a light.
Tommy O'Brien, First Six Nations, Rob Baloucoune, at 28, he gets the Newcomer Award, but you could go through the squad like that and pick them out, as I'm sure you all will. The story of this Six Nations has been certainly a powerful one for us, certainly internally anyway."
Tommy O'Brien, First Six Nations, Rob Baloucoune, at 28, he gets the Newcomer Award, but you could go through the squad like that and pick them out, as I'm sure you all will. The story of this Six Nations has been certainly a powerful one for us, certainly internally anyway."
'BOUNCING BACK' - CAELAN DORIS PROUD OF FOUR WINS FROM FIVE, REGARDLESS OF IF HIS SIDE WINS THE TITLE
Ireland have now done all they can, with the cards now out of their hands to see if they will take home the Six Nations title. A fourth Triple Crown under Andy Farrell has been a welcomed result from the Championship, which had a tough start to proceedings following the defeat to France in Round One.
Caelan Doris was quick to praise the journey that his side has been on, and show the resilience to bounce back from the opening defeat and collect four wins on the bounce. Regardless of whether or not England can get the job done in Paris, the captain is delighted with where his side is at at the end of the campaign.
CAELAN DORIS: "It's been a good journey so far throughout. I think probably showed good resolve in bouncing back. I mean the Italy performance wasn't great, but still got the win here at home and I think it's been fairly linear in terms of trajectory since then.
"It's a great group, there's depth building there, there's competition building within the squad, as Faz mentioned there's the likes of Darragh Murray, Mikey Milne who have come in with not a ton of experience, especially in the Six Nations, and putting good performances in.
"We're moving things in the right way and it's been enjoyable chasing down the potential and seeing some of the growth over the last number of weeks. It's still pleasing. Like I mentioned there, it's not a commonly done thing. So we'll still probably enjoy it.
"Like I say as well, the growth throughout that we've seen, it's a pretty satisfying way to finish up versus if you look at last year, we obviously won four out of five last year as well, but I think our performance probably dipped towards the end. So to finish that performance is definitely pleasing. We've done our part. We've controlled what we can control. So we'll enjoy the evening regardless."
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