Andy Farrell Portugal Ireland Dublin Six Nations Sport Rugby Farrell Andy Farrell Portugal Ireland Dublin

Andy Farrell: 'We know how much it means to the Irish people'

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Andy Farrell says the thoughts of winning a Grand Slam in front of a home crowd at the Aviva Stadium has been a motivating factor for his side from the very start of the championship.Ireland welcome England to Dublin on Saturday in the final round of the Guinness Six Nations with their fate in their own hands, knowing a win will seal just a fourth Grand Slam in their history.With the two modern day slams in 2009 and 2018 both being claimed away from home, and the final game of the 1948 title success being played at Ravenhill, a win on Saturday would mark the first time Ireland have completed a perfect championship at Lansdowne Road.Farrell says the prospect of lifting the trophy in front of 50,000 supporters at the Aviva Stadium has been a motivating factor over the last seven weeks."It's something that we've talked about from day one coming in, before we went to Portugal, that it's not been done here," he said.And he's called on the Irish fans to make themselves heard at the Aviva on Saturday."It's not 'any other game'.

We'd be stupid to think that, it's another challenge for us, being at our best. The trophy's not a factor, it's us performing that matters the most."We've earned the right to have a go at that, so we know how much it means to the Irish people and their support has been unbelievable for us, and I hope there's a bit of a two-way thing on Saturday where we try and get them going, and they try and get us going as well."You can feel the buzz, that's what we've done, we've put ourselves in a position to have a crack at this and it's something that we've been up front about from the beginning, which is pretty pleasing.

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