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Job done for Caelan Doris and Co, now it's all eyes on Paris

Caelan Doris, left, and Jamie Osborne of Ireland after their side's victory in the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Caelan Doris (L) with Jamie Osborne

Job done for Ireland, now it's over to England in Paris.

Captain Caelan Doris picked up the man of the match award after leading his side to a really impressive 43-21 bonus-point victory over Scotland at Aviva Stadium.

It sealed the Triple Crown for Ireland and kept their hopes of winning the Six Nations Championship alive. The French now need to beat England to win the title or draw with a try bonus. Anything less, and glory goes to Ireland.

A positive end to the spring could get even better, with Doris particularly pleased with the nature of Saturday's triumph at Lansdowne Road.

"The atmosphere here is unbelievable, we can feel you guys (the supporters), so thanks a million," he told Virgin Media on the pitch.

"We saw what they were capable of last week, so we had to be high alert, always switched on, we knew what their attack was capable of. I felt our defence stood up pretty well today and got quite a few turnovers. Special mention to Tadhg Beirne, I thought he was unbelievable.

"I think it's the start of a journey in a way. It's an important part along the way. Still plenty more building to do and chasing down the potential that we have, but we definitely saw what we were capable of in this tournament."

With France-England not kicking off until 8.10pm (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), Doris and his teammates will put the feet up and hope for the best.

"It's a rare thing that we're cheering them on," he added. "We'll see what happens. We've done our job, so we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the day."

Josh van der Flier echoed the sentiments of his captain, reflecting on the opening night loss to France and how the squad reacted to that chastening result.

"It's always tough when you lose a game and you probably want to play the next week straight away and make up for it," he said.

"But it was great to get to play against England, obviously a special day there. I think one of the things that makes this team very good is the competitiveness. It's been great all tournament.

"I'll play as much as I can whenever I can I suppose."

Van der Flier admitted Ireland were challenged to lay down a marker against the visitors, who saw their own Triple Crown/championship hopes go up in smoke.

"We were talking about it and 'Faz' (Andy Farrell) was talking about it before the game. He was like, 'who's going to be the James Ryan? Who's going to be the Pete O'Mahony? Who's going to bring the physicality and bring an edge to the game?' So that was kind of what we were challenged with.

"I think we probably showed him, particularly on the forwards. The forwards were brilliant.

"We have a post-match function and everything now. There'll be a couple of speeches and stuff, and we'll see what happens then."


Watch France v England (8.10pm) in the Six Nations on Saturday on RTÉ2/RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on France v England on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport

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