The head coach praised the visitors who put it up to Ireland physically, holding them out for long stretches until Andrew Porter's try gave them some comfort on the scoreboard.

Even then, Huw Jones' try and Finn Russell's conversion made it a nervy finish, but Ireland held out to retain their trophy.

Farrell said the nature of the game made the win all the sweeter.

“I suppose it does. It’s a proper Test match and when a trophy is on the line for the both of us, that’s how it should be, shouldn’t it?" he said.

"I’ve no doubt that Scotland will be proud of their performance as well as us, but ultimately we’re delighted. It’s about winning championships for us and that’s unbelievably pleasing because it’s so hard to do.

"Everyone constantly talks about Grand Slams and we get carried away with it so much, back-to-back Grand Slams have never been done before, there’s obviously a good reason for that but for us to be in a position to win back-to-back Six Nations is a nice feeling, because it goes down in history for Irish rugby.

"We’re unbelievably proud of the group."

Farrell believes there's more to come from this squad after they bounced back from their World Cup heartbreak to deliver another title.

“I sure hope so," he said.

"I think it was a fantastic campaign for this group and yeah, we’re continuing on from where we left off and trying to improve as a group.

“But we all know things change year on year as far as personnel’s concerned and injuries and whatnot, staff leaving, staff coming in, new staff.

“I reckon the loss last week will be the best thing for us as a group because some of these lads, subconsciously now, not through their own doing, they’ve been used to winning. They have, but the special thing about the Six Nations, and why the Grand Slams are so hard to do that it changes week on week like we all know.

“Some people are fighting for their lives and for this group, for some of the lads who are not used to losing at all, I don’t know, I’ll have to ask them, they get to point where they’re turning up for games actually thinking ‘we’re doing it’.

“You’re never doing it. You’re never doing it in the Six Nations because things changes week to week and that Test match last week was a proper Test match in Twickenham and so it should be. We’ll learn the lessons from that and that will be powerful for us going forward like this one was tonight.

“This was a proper Test match. Scotland are a great side. I thought they were tenacious, they were tough and I actually thought we played bloody well. We came out of the blocks in the second half and that was magnificent. The power, the pace we put into the game, but we couldn’t get over the line but that’s how it should be.

“Scotland have got a lot to say in that and that was a proper Test match where trophies were on the line and the last two weeks for us is going to be a great learning.”