Joe Schimdt's Ireland are aiming for a third successive title for the first time. After falling short in the World Cup quarter finals they need to prove a point here today. With big names like Sean O'Brien, Iain Henderson and Peter O'Mahony absent from the pack due to injury, Schmidt has given starts to munsters skipper CJ Stander, Mike McCarthy and Tommy O'Donnell.
Warren Gatland's injury ridden Welsh side did extremely well in the World Cup given their circumstances. Having since recovered Gatland has named an experienced outfit for today's clash. In the back row he has gone with two open sides in Justin Tipuric and Sam Warburton due to injury concerns over Dan Lydiate who starts on the bench.

Good afternoon and welcome to Ultimate Rugby's Six Nations coverage as Ireland host Wales in the Aviva Stadium. This is arguably the biggest fixture of the weekend with both sides sharing the past four championship titles.

Big win here please Ireland!

Late change for Wales: Full-back Gareth Anscombe is ruled out with a hamstring injury. He will be replaced by Liam Williams.

Final predictions for the 6 nations are 1 Wales 2 England 3 Scotland 4 Ireland 5 Italy 6 France .It will be very close between Wales and England as Wales are really good and England under Eddie had a solid performance against Scotland yesterday and came out deserved winners which Eddie can now build on, Scotland were extremely unlucky to go bottom last yr in the 6 nations as they could and should have won 3 of there games at least, Ireland are a 'crumbling giant' with the lost of some good players from there team like O'Connell and have struggled to replace them and added to the fact that Scotland are a rising power in rugby under Vern I think Scotland will beat out Ireland for that 3rd place, Italy have all there foundations set, they were very unlucky to lose yesterday as they were hands down the best team out of the 2 and I think they will be able to win maybe one or two games especially at home under the leadership of Parisse, France are in my opinion in dissaray, that crushing defeat to New Zealand in the world cup, new coach and foreigners cramming the top 14 have weakened the French significantly.

Liam Williams in

Gareth Anscombe is out

But all I can see is Stander tearing **** up in every aspect, he's monstrous

I wouldn't be surprised if the winner of this game decides the winner of a Grand Slam. All the other teams are thoroughly unimpressive so this I believe will at least decide the title, unless there's an upset somewhere

As a Welsh fan I'm so nervous about this game. We win this and I believe we will win the grand slam after watching England yesterday. Nothing is assured though Ireland have to carrot of winning three successive titles & kick it off at home. Come on Wales!