Wales v Ireland: match details and past meetings

Round five

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off & TV: 2.45pm Saturday, BBC1 & S4C
Best prices: 4-5 Wales, 5-4 Ireland, 22-1 draw (handicap one to two points)

Teams
Wales L Williams; G North, J Davies, H Parkes, J Adams; G Anscombe, G Davies; R Evans, K Owens, T Francis; A Beard, AW Jones, J Navidi, J Tipuric, R Moriarty. Replacements E Dee, N Smith, D Lewis, J Ball, A Wainwright, A Davies, D Biggar, O Watkin.
Ireland R Kearney; K Earls, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Stockdale; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, T Furlong, T Beirne, J Ryan, P O'Mahony, S O'Brien, CJ Stander. Replacements N Scannell, D Kilcoyne, A Porter, Q Roux, J Conan, K Marmion, J Carty, J Larmour.

The formula is simple for Wales - win and they are Grand Slam winners for the third time under Warren Gatland - while Ireland need not only to win in Cardiff but for Scotland to pull off a first win at Twickenham in 36 years.

Ireland have a marginal upper hand, having won five Six Nations clashes in Cardiff to Wales's four, but the Welsh have won the last two.

Wales have won all four of their Six Nations matches this year by no more than 11 points, and are the narrowest of favourites.

Last six meetings
2018 Ireland 37 Wales 27
2017 Wales 22 Ireland 9
2016 Ireland 16 Wales 16
2015 Ireland 10 Wales 16 (World Cup warm-up)
2015 Wales 21 Ireland 35 (World Cup warm-up)
2015 Wales 23 Ireland 16

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