Plenty at stake as Ireland aim to sign off with victory over Wales

This, at face value, looks more like it. Lions Test starters abound for Ireland's last home game before the World Cup, with fringe contenders drinking at the last chance saloon in the last game before the 31-man squad is finalised. Fittingly, a near full house is expected for Paul O'Connell's last Test on the green, green grass of home.

Of course, the priority is for both squads to emerge unscathed by injury, to fine-tune the returning front-liners and to increase their options by dint of some players showcasing their abilities.

Midfield options

Into this category assuredly falls

Luke Fitzgerald

, who could add to Joe Schmidt’s thin-ish midfield options. With doubts surrounding the fitness of

Marty Moore

, although he has returned to training, and

Cian Healy

, albeit a seemingly near miraculous improvement this week,

Nathan White

will assuredly be monitored closely too.

It's a significant outing also for Iain Henderson, Dave Kearney and Keith Earls, while for Wales the performance of Tomas Francis might help improve a problematic tight-head position.

Nonetheless, form is always helpful, and Ireland would dearly like to extend their winning run at the Aviva to ten games, not least as a valedictory victory for the big fella, though no-one, not least the great man himself, would dare suggest that.

Fitting farewell

With ticket sales reportedly around the 47,000 mark yesterday, this ought to be a fitting farewell to arguably Ireland’s greatest ever forward. Ironically though, whereas some who don’t have the grand farewell lament it, others such as O’Connell are embarrassed by them.

“Yea, they are embarrassing,” smiled O’Connor sheepishly after his final post-captain’s run press conference at the Aviva. “I mean, they’re nice (as well). I really enjoyed my last game in Thomond Park against the Ospreys that day. I had it to myself almost. I think most players want to focus on the game and get on with the game, particularly with the way we play. There’s an awful lot of things to think about; there’s an awful lot of things we’ve got to do to play well to fit into the system. You’re not too bothered by any of the outside distractions.”

Going dangerously close to impending retirement questions, O’Connell was asked if he felt he had fulfilled that enormous potential first evident in his Young Munster AIL days.

“Yea, I think so. I think I probably got some injuries that I didn’t need to get, if I had been a bit more clever in how I trained and what I did in the gym. I look at what some of the guys are doing in the gym and I’ve love to be able to do that but unfortunately I can’t. I was very competitive with people in the gym which I think for a tall man is a little bit dangerous.”

“They would be my only regrets, those injuries that didn’t need to happen. I haven’t always done the right thing, but I’ve always tried to do the right thing in how I’ve trained, prepared and played.”

Famously, O'Connell has told of his room-mate, fellow Young Munster man Peter Clohessy, smoking in their room the night before his try-scoring debut, also against Wales in this very location, in February 2002, all of 14 seasons ago.

The game has changed, changed utterly, and O’Connell with it.

Completely changed

“It’s funny, we actually train a lot less now. We used to be one hour 40 minutes on the pitch two days a week, 90 minutes on the pitch one day a week and 45 minutes the day before Tests. It’s completely changed. We’re rarely on the pitch now longer than 65-70 minutes.”

"Back then after you won a lineout or a scrum all bets were off and it was play away, and do what you like. Rugby has become very much more structured. Defensively it's poles apart. Mike Ford came in that week actually for his first week, and he was a like a rocket scientist to us in terms what he wanted us to do defensively."

“Back then the guys who were really hard trainers, big into their diets, their weights and recovery, were the exception, whereas now the guys that are a little like Claw are very much the exception. So it’s almost a different sport in some ways, particularly in the last few years under Joe. I mean we had even no video analysis of the lineout back then. We just came up with a system and hoped for the best. It’s a different sport almost.”

“The guys who were hard trainers almost got bullied by Claw and Gaillimh for doing too much. It’s just the way it was. It was just a different world really.”

Hard worker

Asked how he’d like to be remembered, O’Connell said with a laugh: “Crikey, what a question! I don’t know, as a hard worker and a team man, and I hope that people say that. I don’t know really. Look, it’s been a very enjoyable experience playing here in Ireland and playing in Dublin in the Aviva and Lansdowne Road. It’s every kid’s dream. When I play rugby with (son) Paddy now, I have to be France or England, because he’s always Ireland.”

As an aside, Ireland need to win to retain their all-time high of second place in the world rankings, and they may be just a tad more match-hardened and match-prepared. There is also the possible effects of home advantage, not that it ever matters too much in probably the most unpredictable European head-to-head of them all.

But it should be interesting.