'He can pull a rabbit out of a hat' - Conan on Russell

Ireland back-row Jack Conan is wary of threat of Scotland fly-half Finn Russell, describing him as a player who can "pull a rabbit out of a hat".

Russell was instrumental in Scotland's thrilling 50-40 win over France at Murrayfield last weekend and will look to have a similar impact when Gregor Townsend's side face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in their final Six Nations game on Saturday.

Both sides are eyeing up the Triple Crown and have an outside chance of a championship title and Conan, who played with Russell on the British and Irish Lions tour in the summer, knows Andy Farrell's side must stifle his influence to claim a win.

"[He's a] Fantastic player and someone if you give time and space to, he can pick any lock and pull a rabbit out of a hat and do wonderful things," Conan said.

"When his team is on the front foot, he looks fantastic. He's a great fella and unbelievable rugby player, all the ability in the world and playing really well.

"He takes that good and bad in his stride and keeps going, so looking forward to facing him at the weekend."

The winner of the game in Dublin, which kicks off at 14:10 GMT, faces a nervous wait to see if they have clinched the championship, with leaders and title favourites France hosting England in their final game at 20:10.

Conan said his side must not get carried away with talk of the championship and must instead focus on extending their 11-game winning run over Scotland in all competitions and retaining the Triple Crown.

"All of that is out of our hands, so we'll control what we can and be focussed on putting in the best performance that we can and if everything else goes our way brilliant, but we need to worry about ourselves and what we need to do first and foremost," he added.

The 33-year-old, who said it was "gutting to miss one of the biggest days in Ireland sporting history" after he was forced to withdraw with illness before their record 42-21 away win over England at the Allianz Stadium, has urged his side to be better than they were against Steve Borthwick's side in order to beat Scotland.

"We need to be at our best and we need to push on from the levels of performance even from Twickenham because we haven't hit our straps as much as we did that day, so that's a big challenge for us to be better again than we were then."