"Write Us Off" - Andy Farrell reveals if Ireland have 'nothing to lose' in England Six Nations clash

England will be looking to bounce back from their loss, after their 12-match winning streak was finally snapped, and their Grand Slam hopes went up in smoke this past Saturday. Steve Borthwick's side came undone by an impressive Scottish side, who reclaimed the Calcutta Cup with a 31-20 win at Murrayfield. Looking at the challenge ahead, Farrell acknowledged how his side are the perceived underdogs.

"You could say we have nothing to lose, but we do. We want to win. We want to play better. We want to learn from a big game experience away from home. Paris is a tough ask and Twickenham is a similar type of task so we need to grow through that experience and see what we can do with it."

"I've no doubt people are going to write us off. In that regard, have we nothing to lose? I don't know. Internally, we want to win everything that we want to but that's why I said these experiences with the players that we've got missing... these lads are learning fast on the job.

"[They new players are] Under extreme pressure, from us a group and from our own expectation of trying to push them as quickly as we possibly because time is always off the essence at international rugby but also, we need to make sure that we understand where we're at as a group."

After making six changes to his Ireland team for last Saturday's clash against Italy, Farrell expressed how the alterations were not made 'lightly'. With three Test matches taking place upon consecutive Six Nations weekends for the first time ever, rotation and depth were paramount to Ireland's second round win over the Azzurri, ahead of this weekend's clash with England.

Farrell was delighted to see the new-coming tournament debutants make good upon their opportunities, as the likes of Robert Baloucoune, Cormac Izuchukwu and Edwin Edogbo all impressed upon their maiden Six Nations run-outs. The Ireland head coach revealed his reasoning behind giving Baloucoune the nod to start, as the try-scoring Ulster flyer collected the Player of the Match award for his strong efforts.

“It's huge. We don’t take these things lightly by swapping the team around." Farrell said. "We swap it for all sorts of reasons, one of them is to give people an opportunity to show what they can do at this level.

"It’s tough for anyone when their international career is stop-start, and there’s reasons for that with injury and so on. It can be frustrating, you can lose confidence, but for him to have not played that much rugby this year, to come into camp and show us he’s worthy of a start like that, and back it up, is pleasing."

On Baloucoune's Ulster teammate Cormac Izuchukwu, Farrell added; "That's his point of difference. It is. He would have led the defensive lineout stuff for us all week. He's a fantastic lineout forward."

There was no place in the squad to face Italy for the likes of Jacob Stockdale, Tommy O'Brien, Cian Prendergast and Josh van der Flier, who all started in the opening round defeat to France. When asked if he decided to rest such players ahead of the incoming trip to Twickenham, Farrell said;

"Obviously, today's something to do with that. To see how people perform, injuries, whether we need a freshness to it or not. But, yeah, there's a few people that were disappointed not to play today and they'll certainly hope, be hoping, that they can put the hand up for selection this week as well."

Despite the clash with Italy being quite the fiery encounter, the Ireland medical team delivered a clean bill of heath across the squad following their post-match assessments. There was some cause for concern as scrum half Craig Casey suffered a broken nose, following a head-to-head clash with bulldozing Italian back row Lorenzo Cannone - which resulted in a trip to the sin bin for the bloodied Munster halfback.

Farrell gave an update on both Casey, and Ireland centre Garry Ringrose, who was seen to recieve some strapping on his leg mid-way through the Test in Dublin. Thankfully, both men look to have gotten the green light - albeit with Farrell bemused by the decision to penalise Casey's blindsided clattering.

"Just a broken nose and a few black eyes [for Casey]. "They'll [match officials] say that is his duty to get lower, but sometimes it shocks you, like, you know, when somebody steps back into you or whatever. It needs cleaning up in my opinion, because you get a broken nose and you didn't know that it happened."

"Garry was strapped up, he said he felt fine with strapping or whatever, so we'll see."