Rugby/Six Nations Championship: John O'Sullivan talks to Simon Easterby who has an extra incentive to defeat Wales on Saturday.

Simon Easterby knows he has more to lose than any other Ireland player if the team are humbled by Wales in Saturday's Six Nations Championship match at the Millennium Stadium.

Ireland's blindside flanker captains the Llanelli Scarlets - he recently signed a new two-year deal - and come Monday morning must return to Stradey Park: the main issue to be decided over the weekend will be who will enjoy the bragging rights.

The script for Saturday's game seemed to be a winner-take-all Grand Slam showdown. The Welsh fulfilled their remit by accounting for Scotland at Murrayfield, but Ireland forgot their lines in stumbling against France at Lansdowne Road.

The latter must be content, should they beat Wales, with the consolation of a second successive Triple Crown and mathematical permutations permitting, the championship title; not exactly a state of affairs to be sniffed at as Ireland's rugby history will attest.

For Easterby, Saturday holds the classic sporting conundrum of team-mates becoming rivals for 80 minutes. Welsh scrumhalf Dwayne Peel and reserve hooker Robin McBryde play with Llanelli as did outhalf Stephen Jones until he switched to Clerment Auvergne in France at the start of the season.

They're more than colleagues, present and past, they're friends. Easterby smiles: "Stephen Jones won't speak to me the week of a game. He didn't last year and we put a few points on them so he may change tactics this year and give me a ring. I haven't had much stick yet, but when we get to Wales I'm expecting plenty.

"I spoke to Dwayne Peel after they played Scotland, congratulated him on his man-of-the-match performance and Robin McBryde as well. There is less Llanelli players in the set-up this year than there has been in the past.

"There'll always be a bit of banter, but we'll have to see who has the bragging rights at training next week."

Easterby has noticed a touch of reticence in the banter as if the Welsh boys don't want to tempt fate. It suggests the players are acutely aware of the expectation that has engendered in the Principality by virtue of several excellent results.

"I'm sure they realise what's at stake for them, a huge game. They have exceeded everyone's expectations this year and the pressure really is on them for the weekend. In a way, it's off us so we can possibly go out and relax this week and focus on putting in a performance. Maybe we haven't had that this year.

"I went back a couple of weeks ago and there were 10 pages of rugby in the Western Mail newspaper and just one on soccer. It is amazing. To be fair, they're justifying it because they're doing their talking on the pitch. Their performances have generated a lot of interest from the public as shown in the 40,000 that travelled to Edinburgh.

"Cardiff will be buzzing on Saturday. The (Welsh) players realise they are a good team. It's taken a bit of time, but they showed in the World Cup and in the autumn the potential that is there, but just didn't get the results then: now the results are coming their way."

A closed roof will facilitate cranking up the decibel levels, something to which Easterby is looking forward. "I can't even imagine what it's going to be like. I have played there in front of 50,000 Llanelli fans in a cup final. We have got to expect it to be the biggest atmosphere we have played in. They'll respect us as a team, the players will and if they don't it'll be at their own peril."

The disappointment of the French game is gone, but not forgotten and Easterby underlined a determination among the Irish 22 not to wake up next Sunday morning with similar feelings.

"It's always tough, the feeling of 'what if', or 'if only', but we are fortunate as players that we have been given a vote of confidence and a responsibility to put that (the French) performance right and hopefully we can do that on the weekend. If we don't there's going to be questions asked. We did better (in the) second half (against France) but the damage was done by then. We've got an opportunity to do some damage."