Preview: Ireland vs. Scotland - prediction team news, lineups

Ireland welcome Scotland to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the final round of this year's Six Nations Championships.

Andy Farrell's men overcame a resilient Wales outfit in their previous match, while Gregor Townsend's side claimed an impressive win against France at Murrayfield.

Match preview

Despite losing in Paris on the opening weekend, Ireland head into Super Saturday with the chance to wrestle the Six Nations crown back from France and claim their seventh tournament triumph.

Farrell’s outfit returned to winning ways by narrowly beating a resurgent Italy side at the Aviva Stadium in round two, before impressively dispatching both England and Wales to tee up an almighty closing weekend.

If Ireland want to claim all the glory, they will need England to beat France in the evening match as well as overcoming Scotland themselves and limiting Townsend’s side to a maximum of one losing bonus point.

Having won their previous 11 consecutive matches at the Aviva Stadium against Scotland, the hosts will certainly be confident of doing that and giving themselves the best possible chance of claiming their third Six Nations triumph over a four year span.

© Iconsport / MB Media

After losing to Italy in Rome on the opening weekend, few thought Scotland would be going into Super Saturday with the chance to claim their first ever Six Nations crown.

The Thistles bounced back from their singular loss in impressive fashion by beating Steve Borthwick's England, before staging a late comeback in Cardiff and putting France to the sword at Murrayfield last weekend to win each of their next three.

Following their impressive bonus point victory last weekend, Townsend's men sit level on points with France at the top of the table, however require a favour from England who travel to the Stade de France to close out the tournament.

Playing earlier in the day, if Scotland want to be crowned champions, they need to triumph themselves before requiring England to either win away to France or deny them a bonus point.

However, having lost their previous 11 consecutive matches against fellow championship chasers Ireland, Scotland will certainly need to focus on the task at hand first before worrying about results elsewhere.

Ireland Six Nations form:

Scotland Six Nations form:

Team News

© Iconsport / Sportsfile

Farrell has made several changes to the pack that faced Wales last weekend, with Dan Sheehan, Joe McCarthy and Josh van der Flier replacing Ronan Kelleher, James Ryan and Nick Timoney.

Ireland will deploy an almost identical backline, however do make one switch with Tommy O'Brien preferred to Jacob Stockdale on the wing.

However, the most notable inclusion for Ireland is undoubtedly Bundee Aki, with the centre set to make his first appearance in this year's competition.

Scotland have also replaced three of the forwards who were deployed against France at Murrayfield, with Zander Fagerson, Max Williamson and Grant Gilchrist coming in for D'Arcy Rae, Gregor Brown and Scott Cummings.

However, Townsend has made no switches amongst the backs, as Darcy Graham keeps his place on the wing once again and makes up a back three also consisting of Blair Kinghorn and Kyle Steyn..

Ireland starting lineup:

15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Tommy O'Brien, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 1 Tom O'Toole, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 6 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Caelan Doris

Replacements:

16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Darragh Murray, 20 Nick Timoney, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Bundee Aki

Scotland starting lineup: 

15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Kyle Steyn, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 George Turner, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Max Williamson, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 8 Jack Dempsey

Replacements:

16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 D'Arcy Rae, 19 Alex Craig, 20 Magnus Bradbury, 21 George Horne, 22 Kyle Rowe, 23 Tom Jordan

We say: Ireland 32-20 Scotland

While it will undoubtedly be an entertaining and close encounter, we think winning in Dublin will be a step too far for Scotland.

Considering how they were viewed pre tournament, Townsend's men have done extremely well to catapult themselves into a championship fight, but it is hard to ignore their record at the Aviva Stadium.

Ireland have gone from strength to strength since losing to France and we can see them nervously following the evening's match at the Stade de France after claiming a crucial victory themselves.