A chance to lay down marker for Grand Slam

Was it a one-off, that oh-so disappointing World Cup quarter-final defeat to Wales last October, or something altogether more meaningful?

Ireland will set about Warren Gatland’s team at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow intent on trying to prove the former, thus confirming their belief that one bad day in Wellington does not a bad team make.

Talk of revenge has been downplayed throughout the build-up to this RBS 6 Nations opener but there is no doubt the manner of that 22-10, three tries to one loss on October 8 has been a source of considerable irritation since that chilly New Zealand spring evening 17 weeks ago.

The Irish camp has been reminding the media all week of the tries they left out there in Wellington and while Wales head coach Gatland has enjoyed being able to recall the day he says his tactics stopped Ireland from playing, and has named an impressive team for the rematch, it could be argued Declan Kidney’s side will go into this game in better shape.

Wales have not exactly gone backwards but they will take the field tomorrow with a pack missing four key players in loosehead prop Gethin Jenkins, locks Alun Wyn Jones and Luke Charteris and blindside dynamo Dan Lydiate. Their replacements — Saracens’ prop Rhys Gill, second rows Bradley Davies and Ian Evans and back row Ryan Jones — are no lightweights but Ireland will be looking to make the most of the disruptions.

That will mean Mike Ross trying to unsettle incoming front rower Gill at scrum-time and captain Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan hassling and hustling every Welsh lineout ball. The Irish, too, will have to quickly set the record straight at the breakdown, where they were outmanoeuvred last time around and denied any consistent platform by painfully slow ball.

Nor did poor tactical kicking help matters and so there has been plenty to put right in terms of execution.

Judging by the sharp play of the Irish provinces, even factoring in some meaningful overseas influences in the Heineken Cup pool stages, Ireland’s players are fully up to speed in early February and also have the momentum of an extremely successful campaign to carry them into this championship opener.

Munster also had the pleasure of beating Scarlets back-to-back just before Christmas, ironically leaving the Welsh region to bemoan the dark arts of the breakdown. Another score for Ireland in this extremely tight battle of wits.

By selecting Jonny Sexton at fly-half, Kidneyologists have detected a more expansive approach in the offing compared to last October’s gameplan, a theory that not only does disservice to his out-half rival Ronan O’Gara and his orchestration of a five-try rout of Northampton two weekends ago but also fails to understand a head coach that while looking for more creativity in attack, wants to see it implemented when the time is right.

“It’s very important you don’t bracket yourself into forcing yourself to play a certain style,” he said this week. “We’ve taken a look at different aspects of our play. The defensive stuff didn’t take a lot of time to fix. Some of the attack play we’ve taken a look at and with analysis being what it is now. We would hope to do some things but if you didn’t notice them, that wouldn’t upset me because a lot of it is down to decisions made by the lads on the pitch. You want to present lads with different options and then pull out the wise one at the time.

“That might be a case of playing the game tight or going wide. It’s about doing what’s right at that particular point in time.

“If you say ‘we’re just going to play an expansive game’ you can put yourself under pressure to try and go wide all the time and certainly, against a defence like Wales, that could be extremely difficult. Sides have tried to do that in the past and come a cropper.

“There’ll be times to go wide and times to play up the guts and we need to have wisdom which way to go.”

After a Six Nations campaign last year that began riddled with bad calls against Italy and France before coming to fruition with a Sexton-inspired victory over England, that wisdom should surely have been acquired by now. Sexton himself says he has it and tomorrow he will get his chance to prove it.

His World Cup was undermined by poor place-kicking but his form since has been sparkling. Now is the time to transfer it from Leinster blue to Ireland green and carry his country down the right road to Six Nations success.

That hinges entirely on beating Wales in Dublin tomorrow. Win and the team goes to Paris next Saturday night with all the momentum and confidence to redress another black mark on its resumé, an appalling record at Stade de France.

From there, home games against Italy and Scotland should provide the wins to set up a Grand Slam tilt at Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day.

Lose, and, well, March 17 will seem an awfully long way away but Ireland have what it takes to complete step one and draw a very definitive line underneath that dark day last October.