![\"andy-farrell-watches-on-from-the-stands\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771982350_449_.JPEG\")
\n Andy Farrell watched his son play for Blackrock College’s junior team today. Andrew Conan \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
IRELAND\u2019S PLAYERS AND staff did their usual thing of staying together on Saturday night as they toasted a stirring victory in London.<\/p>\n
Although it was an early kick-off against England, the Irish set-up had decided to stay the night and they enjoyed each other\u2019s company at the team hotel in Richmond after a record-breaking victory at Twickenham.<\/p>\n
Many of their partners made the trip over, so it was another family affair for Andy Farrell\u2019s group. The younger crowd ended up in a local bar to continue the celebrations but the wise old heads were able to call it a night after a deeply satisfying day.<\/p>\n
When they landed back in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, the squad broke up and went their separate ways for a couple of days\u2019 rest after a hectic few weeks.<\/p>\n
From their pre-championship training camp in Portugal, straight on to Paris, back to Dublin, then over to London, it has been a busy time. And with the Six Nations condensed this season, Ireland have played on three consecutive weekends for the first time.<\/p>\n
With all of that in mind, the break has been welcome. Yet, there\u2019s no doubt that lots of the players and all of the staff will have been working away early this week, reviewing, previewing and analysing as they now target a Triple Crown.<\/p>\n
They come back together tomorrow morning to get their preparation for the visit of Wales underway, with an open training session against the Ireland U20s \u2013 fresh from their own win over England \u2013 at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday before they get another couple of nights in their own beds.<\/p>\n
Farrell\u2019s men will return to camp on Saturday evening and then they will be into Test match week, which begins on Sunday due to the Wales game taking place in Dublin on a Friday evening, 6 March, with an 8.10pm kick-off.<\/p>\n
\n Andy Farrell watched his son play for Blackrock College’s junior team today. Andrew Conan \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Andrew Conan \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
Farrell and his assistants hope they\u2019ll have a well-rested group coming back in on Saturday evening, with two big games still ahead of them.<\/p>\n
Even before Wales had come extremely close to beating Scotland last Saturday evening, Farrell was warning against any Irish complacency in the wake of the hammering of England.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Wales were great last week [in their 54-12 defeat to France],\u201d said Farrell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought they got way better in their performance and they could continue to grow as well. As you know in this competition, every point counts. Their intention will be the same as ours, to make sure that they keep going through to the last day.\u201d<\/p>\n
France are the title and Grand Slam favourites, given their excellent form, but Farrell wants his Ireland team as well-positioned as possible to take advantage of any slip-ups by\u00a0les Bleus\u00a0against Scotland or England.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also that Triple Crown on the line if Ireland can get past Wales. Scotland have already beaten England and the Welsh, so they\u2019re definitely going to be coming to Dublin on the final day of the championship gunning for that trophy.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s Triple Crown success last year \u2013 Farrell\u2019s third \u2013 was unfairly dismissed in many quarters, but it was hard-earned with fine wins over England, Scotland, and Wales before the Irish performances fell off in the last two games of the championship.<\/p>\n
But you get the sense that Ireland taking on Scotland in Dublin with a trophy on the line on the final day of the championship would create a compelling atmosphere. And who knows how the Six Nations table might look at that stage? Last weekend showed us that sport remains a delightfully unpredictable beast.<\/p>\n
First things first for Farrell and Ireland, though. They must build on the win over England and take down a Welsh side who have very little to lose when they come to Dublin.<\/p>\n
![\"james-lowe-leaves-the-pitch-after-getting-injured\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771982351_122_.JPEG\")
\n James Lowe is an injury concern for Ireland. \u00a9INPHO<\/p>\n
\u00a9INPHO\n<\/p>\n
Lots of Irish supporters will be hoping that Farrell uses this fixture to give players in his wider squad a chance, but the Ireland boss has already handed out seven Six Nations debuts in the three opening games.<\/p>\n
After making six changes for the Italy game, then another five for the England clash, it might be that he opts for more settled selections for the final two-game block as he backs his men to finish on a high.<\/p>\n
Edwin Edogbo, Tom Farrell, Michael Milne, Harry Byrne, Cian Prendergast, Darragh Murray, Jude Postlethwaite, Nathan Doak,\u00a0Cormac Izuchukwu, Tom Stewart, and Bryn Ward have returned to their provinces this week for URC duty at the weekend.<\/p>\n
That leaves Jeremy Loughman, Tom O\u2019Toole, Dan Sheehan, R\u00f3nan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong, Finlay Bealham, Thomas Clarkson, James Ryan, Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Nick Timoney, Caelan Doris, Jack Conan, Jamison Gibson-Park, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Sam Prendergast, Stuart McCloskey, Garry Ringrose, Ciar\u00e1n Frawley,\u00a0James Lowe, Tommy O\u2019Brien, Jacob Stockdale, Robert Baloucoune, and Jamie Osborne in camp for the two-day schedule this week.<\/p>\n
Lowe is definitely injured and a doubt for the Wales game, while there are a few others carrying bumps and bruises from Twickenham and the previous two weekends.<\/p>\n
So Farrell might be managing some of those in the 26-man squad he has this week, but these are the players who will make up most of the matchday 23 against the Welsh, even if there is always scope for a couple to return from URC duty to feature.<\/p>\n
Bundee Aki, now free to play after serving his suspension, and Robbie Henshaw, fit again after a knee injury, are in consideration to feature for Connacht and Leinster, respectively. before possibly linking up with Ireland ahead of the Wales game.<\/p>\n
We know that Farrell values both of those experienced players highly.<\/p>\n
But overall, there\u2019s a good chance Farrell\u2019s 23 to take on Wales will have a similar look to the one that produced such a superb performance in London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRELAND\u2019S PLAYERS AND staff did their usual thing of staying together on Saturday night as they toasted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,147367,15551,147368,4381],"class_list":["post-315669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-next-job","tag-six-nations","tag-triple-crown","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}