Ireland host Wales at the Aviva Stadium in round three of the Six Nations
Winless Wales travel to Dublin to face top-of-the-table Ireland as we look at who could be victorious in this famous fixture. Here are our Ireland v Wales predictions ahead of their round three Six Nations clash.
Warren Gatland returned to a Wales side in crisis and has somewhat steadied the ship with a decent World Cup campaign.
However, they go into this match as serious underdogs with a very inexperienced team and having lost their two Six Nations games so far.
Read more: The last time a team won back-to-back Grand Slams as Ireland hunt Six Nations first
Ireland, on the other hand, are full of confidence and have seemingly got over their agonising quarter-final defeat to the All Blacks.
Andy Farrell’s side are in excellent form, having dispatched France in the opening game and followed that up with a convincing 36-0 win over Italy.
The men in green are hungry for another Grand Slam and beating their Celtic rivals seems like a straightforward next step.
Ireland v Wales predictions
Josh Graham: Ireland by 11. Wales will be smart enough not to be blown away but they don’t have enough to derail the Irish juggernaut. Especially at home. The double Grand Slam will still be firmly on come Monday morning.
Eddie McAteer: Ireland by 18. Even though Wales have shown real strength of character in their games against England and Scotland, they were very different prospects to this Ireland side.
England have struggled in attack and Scotland took their foot off the gas for an entire half, whereas Ireland are firing on all cylinders.
The hosts are the definition of a well-oiled machine and I cannot see them slipping up against Wales, especially at the Aviva Stadium. It should be straightforward.
Alan Pearey: Ireland by 14. I predicted a Welsh win at Twickenham and they weren’t far away. But Ireland? They look on a different level to everyone else this year.
So although Wales are dogged and unflinching, and impressively are more than the sum of their parts, it’s impossible to see how they can stop the green juggernaut.
Ireland are not only gunning for back-to-back Grand Slams but as an aside could become the first team to bag a maximum 28 points in a Six Nations campaign – five bonus-point wins plus the three extra points awarded for the clean sweep.
They tallied 26 points in their 2018 Grand Slam year and 27 points in last year’s Slam, managing only three tries against Scotland. They will fancy their chances of going one better this time.
Kick-off time 2:15pm GMT – Saturday 24 February
TV channel ITV 1 (UK) – How to watch the Six Nations wherever you are
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Capacity: 51,711
Ireland v Wales head-to-head results
2023 Six Nations: Wales 10-34 Ireland
2022 Six Nations: Ireland 29-7 Wales
2021 Six Nations: Wales 21-16 Ireland
2020 Six Nations: Ireland 24-14 Wales
2019 Six Nations: Wales 25-7 Ireland
Ireland v Wales team news
Read more: Ireland Six Nations squad
IRELAND Ciaran Frawley; Calvin Nash, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne, Peter O’Mahony (capt), Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.
Replacements 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Oli Jager, 19 James Ryan, 20 Ryan Baird, 21 Jack Conan, 22 Conor Murray, 23 Stuart McCloskey.
Related: Wales Six Nations squad
WALES Cameron Winnett; Josh Adams, George North, Nick Tompkins, Rio Dyer; Sam Costelow, Tomos Williams; Gareth Thomas, Elliot Dee, Keiron Assiratti, Dafydd Jenkins (capt), Adam Beard, Alex Mann, Tommy Reffell, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Mackenzie Martin, 21 Keiran Hardy, 22 Ioan Lloyd, 23 Mason Grady.
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