The means may justify the end

RBS 6 Nations

And so to the Millennium Stadium, a theatre of Irish dreams coming to fruition on so many occasions, from Munster and Leinster’s Heineken Cup heroics to the Grand Slam of 2009.

Nothing will be so conclusively achieved there today but Joe Schmidt and captain Paul O’Connell are both acutely aware that high hopes and history in the making can just as easily come to a crushing halt in Cardiff.