Andy Farrell believes his Ireland squad have grown "massively" in this Guinness Six Nations, after they finished their campaign with a brilliant 43-21 win against Scotland.
The six-try victory seals a fourth Triple Crown in five years and guaranteed Ireland second place in the championship, while they fell agonisingly short of the title, after France's dramatic 48-46 win against England.
Regardless of what happened at Stade de France, the Irish squad will head back to their provinces feeling good about their tournament, after reeling off four wins in a row since the opening defeat to the French, and saving their best performance for this afternoon's win against Scotland.
"Proud as punch of everyone involved," the Ireland head coach said after his side’s 12th consecutive win against Scotland.
"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 [appearances], 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."
Ireland never trailed across the 80 minutes, but they did have to absorb a huge amount of Scottish pressure in a thrilling game of rugby, only pulling clear in the final 15 minutes after two Tommy O’Brien tries and a Jack Crowley penalty.
As noted by rugby stats guru Russ Petty, Ireland’s tackle count of 228 was their highest for 15 years, and while Scotland scored three tries, the home side responded with quick scores each time.
"That's why it was so pleasing, they [Scotland] played bloody well, you know?" Farrell added.
"They kept banging the door down the whole time, but I thought we had a ruthless edge to us in how we defended and converted in the 22, I suppose that was the story of the game really."
As has been the case several times in this campaign, Ireland’s impact off the bench was crucial, with Farrell making six substitutions at once with 15 minutes to play, Rónan Kelleher, Michael Milne, Finlay Bealham, Darragh Murray, Ciarán Frawley and Bundee Aki all coming on in one swoop.
Ireland had been 25-21 in front at the time, and scored 17 unanswered points to put the game beyond doubt.
"It wasn't pre-planned, no. Nothing's ever pre-planned with us in regards to substitutions," Farrell (above) said of his 'Bomb Squad'.
"It was just what was needed because, again, Scotland were battering the door down, they were.
"You trust the bench that you've got. It was nice to bring six all on together so that Bundee didn't get the cheer all on his own. That was the main plan really."
The Ireland head coach is usually reticent to highlight individual performances, but broke tradition this afternoon, describing Jack Crowley’s contribution as "outstanding", adding that captain and man of the match Caelan Doris played "one of his best games of his career".
But having come into the championship with a hefty injury list, he also singled out some less experienced players for praise.
"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 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.
"And then obviously 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.
"And then you look at, say, 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," the Ireland coach added.
