Andy Farrell will announce an unaltered lineup since Calvin Nash has recovered from his head injury that forced him to leave last week’s game against England. However, the coach does not want to encounter the same problem as last week when there were only two backs on the bench. Therefore, the 5-3 split will be reinstated, including Harry Byrne and Garry Ringrose.

Scotland manager Townsend has selected Stafford McDowall to play at inside-centre, and has also brought back Ben White to play at scrum-half.

Hugo Keenan, Calvin Nash, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, and James Lowe will represent Ireland in the rugby match. They will be joined by Jack Crowley and Jamison Gibson-Park as their teammates. The players in the front row will be Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, and Tadhg Furlong. In the second row, we have Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne, and Peter O’Mahony. Lastly, Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris will complete the team.

New substitutes: Ronan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Finlay Bealham, Ryan Baird, Jack Conan, Conor Murray, Harry Byrne, Garry Ringrose.

Blair Kinghorn from Scotland is joined by Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, and Duhan van der Merwe in a team lineup. Their starting lineup also includes Finn Russell and Ben White, along with Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Scott Cummings, Andy Christie, Rory Darge, and Jack Dempsey.

Possible rewording:
Substitutions: Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland, Elliot Millar-Mills, Sam Skinner, Matt Fagerson, George Horne, Cameron Redpath, Kyle Rowe.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned for Ireland. This was supposed to be the last stop on their journey to achieve a Grand Slam on their national saint’s holiday weekend. However, they only need one bonus point to be declared the Champions, which is a bit of a letdown.

Like the successful England teams in 2000 and 2001, simply winning the Championship may not feel like a satisfactory achievement for Andy Farrell’s players as they were clearly the dominant team in Europe leading up to this. They will be eager to prove their superiority once again today in front of their home supporters.

Although Scotland’s luck hasn’t been great since the World Cup, this wasn’t what they had planned for the tournament to turn out. They still have a chance to win if they can defeat their opponent in Paris and get a positive outcome, but coach Gregor Townsend and his team understand that they also missed out on the opportunity for a Grand Slam. The frustration of letting potential victories slip away against Italy and France hangs over the team like a bad smell. The true task will be finding a way to overcome it and secure a win in Dublin.

I am confident they will both be ready when the game starts.