Declan Kidney's selection to face Wales contains few surprises, as the manager looks set to go all out to win the tournament, rather than blood new talent.
And that is hardly a surprise, given Eddie O'Sullivan's claims earlier this week that the IRFU make it crystal clear to Irish coaches that they expect a strong performance in the Six Nations, as it's their annual revenue spinner.
Debates will mainly centre around Keith Earls' and Johnny Sexton's respective selections.
Earls has been performing well in the centre for Munster, but in international rugby, with the size and power of most modern-day centres, that's an area we may get found out in.
Particularly with the French clash on the horizon, and you'd expect to have to make a huge number of tackles in Paris, this could be a problem.
The debate at 10 rages on, and particularly with the selection of Conor Murray at 9, many feel an in-form
Ronan O'Gara should have been beside him, rather than Johnny Sexton, who was injured for Leinster's last game.
Sexton has trained as normal this week so there's no fitness issue there, but clearly the call could have gone either way.
Kidney opted with Sexton at the start of the World Cup only for O'Gara to take command of the jersey later in the tournament.
However, O'Gara can be relied upon to come off the bench with 20-25 minutes to go and steady the ship / win the game, so for that reason alone, I can see why Kidney has gone with Sexton, although perhaps if Fergus McFadden had taken the 13 jersey, he'd also have taken over kicking duty.
There is also the issue of O'Gara underperforming in the Wales World Cup quarter final, so perhaps Sexton's inclusion is to play a game along the lines of what destroyed England last March.
