Heaslip looking forward to 'battle' against Wales

The countdown is now well on to Ireland's RBS Six Nations clash against Wales at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow and Jamie Heaslip knows that Ireland will have to raise their game from last week's win over Scotland.

Despite the unsettled weather conditions predicted for this weekend, Jamie Heaslip knows this is a key game if Ireland stand any chance of winning the Grand Slam on St Patrick's weekend.

The Leinster number eight captained the Irish side in the previous two meetings of the sides, earning one win from those games last year in a thrilling game at the Millennium Stadium.

Heaslip said: "We are under no illusions to what we are going up against, they have won the Championship two years in a row now so we are going up against a quality side.

"I have played them both at club level and international level and with probably all of them on the Lions tour, they have great players and we expect a really tough battle."

The Irish team know that a big step up is needed in their performance levels tomorrow from the performance against Scotland last week.

The first twenty minutes were quiet in that game and Joe Schmidt's men could count themselves lucky they were playing against a bad visiting side who rarely threatened the Irish line.

Heaslip says it's going to be a very different game tomorrow.

He said: "It's definitely going to be a physical game, the way they play the game, you have to be physical to negate that.

"The whole breakdown tackle combat zone will be a battle for the whole eighty minutes, with both Toby and Sam really good on the ground, they are really good at slowing and getting in at your ball and good at producing their own ball. It's why you play ball, you want to play against good teams and good players."