Might Wales see a weakness in Ireland's centre partnership? They will note six caps between Bundee Aki and Chris Farrell and a Six Nations debut for the latter.
Scott Williams and Hadleigh Parks will directly target Farrell’s defensive positioning. They will test him physically. They will heap the pressure on him and flood his outside channel.
I used to love that sort of challenge. Underrated and marking Jauzion, Nonu, Bastareaud or any Tuilagi. Huge figures, some with ballerina feet, seeking to run over or around me.
Wales hope to expose a perceived lack of familiarity between the Connacht and Munster centres who only ever lined up together for 60 minutes last November.
Digging a little deeper into that hour against Argentina, before Farrell injured himself, we should be confident about Ireland’s new combination.
Granted, their defensive understanding is yet to be examined, not like it will be on Saturday, but look at Jacob Stockdale's first try against Argentina. I have already written about Farrell's impact, his ability to take heavy contact from a double hit before putting the looping Johnny Sexton into space.
Bundee Aki broke the gainline with a straight carry off a solid scrum.
That proved the trigger for Farrell and Sexton with Stockdale following his outhalf up the middle to receive the inside pass and sprint clear.
Wales, I imagine, will block a similar gainline breach but if they do not...
Any potential assumption that Farrell and Aki are a smash and bash partnership taking the field will play nicely into their hands.
Farrell has a little more to him than that and he’s an out-and-out 13.
Robbie Henshaw became central to Ireland’s defensive soundness in recent months but he was only getting used to life as an international outside centre, having manfully become a Test quality 12, after beginning professional rugby at fullback.
Farrell has always played 13. Aki is a natural fit at 12.
Heavy reality
A place for Henshaw will always be found when he returns from the shoulder injury but this backline might start taking on an Australian template of getting the best players onto the field. Garry Ringrose, when making up for lost time, might initially have to settle for an impact role or some time on the wing. Especially if Aki and Farrell go well, particularly in defence, against Wales.
Some day Aki, Farrell, Ringrose and Henshaw will be fit at the same time. Well, you'd like to think so. Maybe not. I don't think Leo Cullen, never mind Joe Schmidt, has had to make a direct call at openside between Seán O'Brien, Josh van der Flier and Dan Leavy when all the blindside and number eight options have also been available.
That is the heavy reality of the modern game.
The 100 cap group won’t be expanding any time soon. Rob Kearney, currently on 83, should get there but World Rugby needs to examine the cost of so many abrasive moments in a packed schedule, reduce the number of games, thereby increasing the quality of games.
The attritional rates should keep Hayes, O’Driscoll, O’Connell, O’Gara and Heaslip in an exclusive century club for the time being.
Looking at Wales in Twickenham, to write about this Saturday’s game, I was constantly distracted by Owen Farrell’s performance at number 12.
Farrell should see the opportunity to shut down Parks and Williams as the moment he announces his arrival into the international arena
He was immense. The complete inside centre’s performance, a role he has truly embraced since the Lions tour when he stood beside Johnny Sexton in the drawn series.
Farrell still plays outhalf for Saracens but what a hybrid 10/12 he has become. There is that hereditary Rugby League hardness and he's added clever running lines off George Ford (see the Italy tries), and there was two incredible hits to stop Welsh runners dead in their tracks.
Chris Farrell could look at Owen Farrell’s tackle on Williams, when the ball was dislodged, as a means to stamp his mark this weekend.
Recent history promises an extraordinarily brutal, even by modern standards, Ireland versus Wales encounter with the ball in play for a ridiculous amount of time. Interestingly, there is pressure on the star names coming back into both teams to deliver a performance better than their understudies have done in the last two games.
That ups the ante but the rules of engagement are clear between these teams because both believe they are better than the other.
Raw materials
Since the Lions, Henshaw has mirrored Owen Farrell for impact in the tackle and decision making in defence. Chris Farrell has the raw materials to join this elite band of midfield defenders.
It’s where the game could be decided.
Farrell should see the opportunity to shut down Parks and Williams as the moment he announces his arrival into the international arena.
Because Ringrose, after just one full campaign in a green jersey, is already a proven performer. Where Wales see a weakness, Chris Farrell must see opportunity.
That’s how I viewed life as a 24-year-old. I see no evidence to think he’s any different. He has all the tools to play No 13 in a major Test match.
He is in good hands. What sets Schmidt and Eddie Jones apart as coaches is their uncanny knack of getting the best out of almost every player they select.
(That said, to underestimate Warren Gatland’s powers of persuasion would be foolish).
Schmidt selects a certain type of character as well as the player. It’s partly psychological. He understands that everyone is different. Sure, most players have similar traits – work ethic etc – but Joe, Gary Ella and Michael Cheika motivated me at key moments of my career because they understood how I ticked.
It’s the little nuggets of advice. They would see a flaw in my passing game that nobody else notices because I’d tuck the ball under my wing and carry instead of putting myself in the position of having to throw a long left-handed pass at full speed a microsecond before or after contact.
There is nowhere to hide and, importantly, nobody is looking to hide anymore.
Joe and Cheiks would realise why I was going into contact, with a competent carry and quick recycle, and encourage me to fail at that skill in training. Over and over again.
Great coaches recognise each individual’s idiosyncrasies and figure the best way of motivating them.
I remember Joe challenging me to improve a specific type of pass that was hit and miss for me, and rarely used. I didn’t understand why but Joe insisted that I work on it on my own. Sure enough, three months later he added an alternative option to an established attack with this very pass being the key to unlocking the All Blacks defence that had studied recent patterns.
So we showed them something new. That was in November 2013. That is coaching.
Standard behaviour
This is standard behaviour in Ireland camp. Players are asked to add pieces to their armoury every day. If they don’t do so, this becomes apparent during detailed reviews and there is an increased opportunity to play a central role in a successful team.
Henshaw and Ringrose will be watching Saturday with understandably mixed emotions, which will inevitable motivate them to regain that jersey one more time. Same goes for Tadhg Furlong seeing Andrew Porter's relentless engine against Italy. Devin Toner is not going to roll over and allow James Ryan rise unchallenged into a second row partnership with Iain Henderson.
Can you deliver when the opportunity comes?
The days of tough love – the Cheika years as some remember them – are all but passed because players seek out flaws in their game because they see the immediate value in correcting them.
There is nowhere to hide and, importantly, nobody is looking to hide anymore.
There were comments by Joe after Italy about how Bundee Aki will be disappointed with his distribution early on before he produced a superb all round performance. Watch how Aki responds. Watch how he takes the opportunity to cement his place in the team. That should feed into making Chris Farrell's Six Nations debut being a success.
Key moments on Saturday will revolve around the midfield battle. And around each side’s discipline. Wales coughed up two penalties in defeat at Twickenham. What a phenomenal return. Ireland live and die by their single figure penalties conceded creed.
Something or someone’s got to give.
