Andy Farrell in classy England comments after Grand Slam dream ruined but makes bullish Championship statement

Andy Farrell is backing his Ireland team to recover quickly from their defeat to England at Twickenham on Saturday as they aim to be crowned Six Nations winners for the second successive year.

Ireland were close to retaining their Championship title with one round of matches to spare before a last-gasp drop goal from Marcus Smith clinched a shock 23-22 victory for the Red Rose.

Backing his players to bounce back

And although their dream of notching back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams is now in tatters, Farrell is confident his team can bounce back and return to winning ways against Scotland.

“We said from the beginning that we’d like to be in with a chance of winning the competition on the last day, and here we are,” said head coach Farrell.

“Look, the lads are realists; they’ll learn the lessons quickly.

“There’s not a problem at all about getting the lads back on track for next week.

“Six Nations (titles) are unbelievably difficult to come by. To win them, you tend to have a lot of ups and downs.

“We were on the wrong side of that result but there will be absolutely no problem whatsoever getting back to work next week for what is a super important week for Irish rugby.

“You dust yourselves down. We’ve been very good at winning and moving on to the next one. We’ve got to be really good at losing as well.

Marcus Smith drop-goal denies Ireland back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams as England shine

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down tomorrow and make sure that we turn up with a smile on our face because we’ve got a championship to win next weekend.”

England came into the match as underwhelming underdogs but were deserved winners as they delivered their best performance since head Steve Borthwick took charge of the team at the end of 2022.

Ireland thought they had done enough to secure a win when James Lowe crossed for his second try in the 73rd minute, but England had other ideas and sealed their win courtesy of Smith’s late heroics.

Full of praise for England’s players

Farrell had no qualms about his side’s loss and hailed his opponents who were rewarded with three tries scored by Ollie Lawrence, George Furbank and Ben Earl, who was also named as the player of the match.

“Look at the quality of the players that they’ve got,” said Farrell.

“Certainly when you’re coming off the back of a defeat it tends to concentrate the mind a little bit – hopefully it does for us next week.

“We always prepare for every game for everyone to be at their best.

“I thought they were super tonight, I thought they were physical, they were challenging on the gain line and played a nice brand of rugby as well.

“To cut a long story short, I actually thought that England deserved to win.”

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