Victory puts Irish in a good place

THE similarities between Wales and Ireland in terms of performance and results in this year’s Six Nations are quite startling and suggest there is little to separate the sides ahead of Saturday’s clash in Cardiff.

Home advantage is the one thing the Welsh will cling to, but, having replicated Ireland’s feat in winning successive tests on the road against Scotland and Italy, they will return to the national stadium with a more positive mindset than when they left their spiritual home after that opening night championship defeat against England.

Declan Kidney could hardly pick a more favourable away venue to finally kick-start Ireland’s tournament than the Millennium Stadium. When the team bus pulls into the impressive arena it is inevitable that the thoughts of the players and management will drift, momentarily at least, to the last occasion in 2009 they were here in the green of Ireland. The drama of the closing minutes of that Grand Slam encounter will live with all for a long, long time.