Ireland Captain Sexton & head coach Farrel comment on their victory over Scotland
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Johnny Sexton, captain
On the performance:
"Sometimes when you know in the back of your mind when you have different permutations, if you get one point, if you get two, if you're losing. All these different things. We just needed to narrow the focus and say we are here to win the game and put in a performance to do that. Very happy with the lads and we're exactly where we want to be now. We won the pool and we are into the quarter-final. We always knew we would most likely play France or New Zealand. There's no easy option there and we have New Zealand.
"It'll be a very tough game and I see they have been talking about revenge already. It'll be a game they want and we need to be ready for it."
On New Zealand tour win:
"We went to New Zealand and Andy told us he put us under the most pressure he could find. To go on a three-test tour but also do the midweek games, it was to test us and to make us learn.
"We learned so many lessons on that tour to take with us for the Six Nations, to win a Grand Slam. To put us in this situation again, to have to play them again. They have said it's the one they want, they are hurting and they want to put it right. That is the biggest challenge in rugby, to beat them when they are in that frame of mind. Two teams will both be under pressure and it will be who copes with that the best."
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Andy Farrell, head coach
On injuries:
"Obviously we will see how they pull up in the morning but Mack [Hansen] went off with a HIA and felt his calf straight away so we got him off. James Ryan has a bit of a knock on his wrist that we need to assess more, so we will see how he is. James Lowe got a bang in the eye, it shut and he couldn't see much, his vision was coming back towards the end of the game, which is good. A few more bangs and bruises that will need to be assessed tomorrow."
On if the defence has improved:
"I definitely think it has because of the time we have spent together. When we are preparing for a normal competition, a Six Nations or Autumn Nations, we have five sessions before we get into it. Our defence has always been strong but we had 15 or 16 weeks together so you would expect every part of your game to get better. It certainly has to keep doing that to keep progressing in this competition.
"It's no secret, everyone says it all over the world, it's defence that wins World Cups and it certainly won us the first half this week that is for sure."
On New Zealand:
"I think New Zealand are a fantastic side and for little old Ireland to be talked about in the same bracket shows how far we have come as a playing nation. But the respect we have for New Zealand is through the roof. The form they have right now is top drawer and, as Johnny said before, I'm sure they will be relishing this fixture to try and put a few things right. It's as tough as it gets, two weeks ago it was a tough game [against South Africa] and this one was knock-out rugby.
"It gets a whole lot tougher next week against the All Blacks and hopefully they will have to be at their best to beat us as well."
On making history if they win their first quarter-final:
"I don't think and neither do the team think we have played our best rugby yet. We know where we want to go and what we want to achieve. Will we ever go there? I don't know. But it's days like next week that are coming where we need to find out a bit more about ourselves and these lads are more than willing to do that."
On what he will say about this upcoming quarter-final:
"First things first, we will enjoy tonight because it was a big week for us. It was a big game for us as Scotland are a great team. We paid them the respect they deserve and that is why we came out with a performance like we did in the first half. The wives and girlfriends and families are over and we will make sure we enjoy that.
"I'm sure once we have recovered properly with a spring in our step, if you can't get excited about what is coming, this is proper living now. This is exactly where you want to be and these boys have been waiting for opportunities and big games to show what they have learned for a while now. It doesn't get any bigger than next week and we will relish that."
