The beast from the east, Tadhg Furlong, is back in Ireland’s starting team which is to play Scotland this weekend in what will be a crunch tie in the Six Nations.

Furlong, a dairy farmer from Wexford, missed out on the Welsh encounter two weeks ago.

He is one of several farmers named in the Joe Schmidt’s starting squad which also includes beef and tillage farmer Rory Best, CJ Stander who has a 1,200ac dairy and vegetable farm back home in South Africa, Rob Kearney who hails from a tillage farm and John Ryan who is also from a dairy farm.

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'I usually spend my days off as farming days' - Rory Best