Donal Lenihan's Ireland v Scotland preview: Home side mad to get their hands on some silverware

I think this is a very tight Irish squad.

It's incredible to think that tomorrow's game is their 13th international since last August when you take the World Cup warm-up games, five games at the World Cup, and the four games at the Six Nations so far.

If Garry Ringrose comes on off the bench tomorrow he'll be the 32nd player that Andy Farrell will have used in the Six Nations alone, so it is a squad effort.

That said, I think Andy Farrell feels that the team that started against England... they didn't perform to the levels we've come to expect of them, but they have earned the right to go out and rectify that.

That's how he's thrown the gauntlet down to those players, so I'm not surprised he's gone with an unchanged team.

Coming into this Six Nations when we started off playing France away, if you were told that you'd win the Six Nations I think everybody would be thrilled.

Expectation heightened because of the performance against France, the comprehensive nature of that win. People almost expected that the Grand Slam was a given, but it's never been that easy.

Back-to-back Grand Slams has never happened in the Six Nations before. England were primed, they were ready for us. There was only one point in the game at the end of it, in injury-time.

But there's a big prize for this group, I think they'll be mad to get their hands on silverware and I do expect Ireland to win.

Anybody who watched the Under-20s' game against England in Bath last Friday night got an absolute classic, a 32-all draw. They are the two best teams in the tournament.

Even if Ireland win against Scotland tonight they'll be dependent on France to do them a favour by beating England in France, but they're an outstanding team.

Richie Murphy moves on to Ulster after