England deserved to win, says Ireland coach Farrell

LONDON : England deserved their 23-22 win at Twickenham on Saturday, Ireland coach Andy Farrell said, and although it ended his side's hopes of back to back Six Nations Grand Slams they are still confident of winning the title by beating Scotland.

Marcus Smith's last-minute drop goal secured an upset win for England after two James Lowe tries looked to be enough for Ireland to take a smash and grab win that would have secured the Six Nations title.

"Long story short they deserved to win," Farrell said. "We fought back unbelievably well, against the run of play at times, and found a way to get in front, but I thought England deserved it with the pressure they had.

"We’ve been very good at winning and moving on to the next one and now we have to be good at losing. We'll dust ourselves down as we have a championship to win."

Ireland top the standings on 16 points and will take the title with a home win on Saturday over Scotland who suffered a shock defeat in Italy on Saturday.

"We said from the start we wanted to be in with a chance of winning it on the last day and we are – it's not a problem getting the lads back on track next week. Six Nations titles are incredibly hard to come by – just look at the results today, that’s why we love it," Farrell said.

Captain Peter O'Mahony, whose yellow card hurt his team as England surged through for a key late try, also credited the hosts.

"They were clinical in messing up our breakdown. They disrupted our attack and defended really well," he said.

"They are a quality side and they showed that. We spoke before about how dangerous they can be so I'm not surprised - look at the quality of the players they have. Coming off a defeat also tends to concentrate the mind a bit."