Six Nations Championship/Wales v Ireland: Johnny Wattersontalks to Ireland forward Denis Leamy ahead of Sunday's clash with Wales

In three days' time we'll see whether an Irish selection that caused only slight controversy this week will deliver on the promise of the autumn series.

These days, the side's regular hard core of automatic picks has billowed out to engulf most of the positions. Injury aside, the back line rarely changes with the exception of a wing position or fullback. In the forwards, it's a backrow place, maybe a hooker.

Tight calls, coach Eddie O'Sullivan calls them, and with talent around such as Johnny O'Connor, Keith Gleeson, Stephen Ferris, Jamie Heaslip, Shane Jennings and Neil Best there was once again an understated inevitability about Denis Leamy's selection at number eight.

Comfort zones are anathema to O'Sullivan and his team, and in Leamy the Munster gene forbids the heresy of assuming the shirt. Still, Leamy's star has been in the ascendant and especially since he tempered his, well, temper, and retained his fire for the shirt at the heart of O'Sullivan's backrow. "I don't think you take anything for granted especially in the backrow. Certainly I'm always confident in my ability but there's always a little bit of apprehension," says Leamy, with perhaps Simon Easterby's annexation of the number six jersey from Neil Best in mind.

Leamy has always had the spark and while the rest of the rugby world agonise over the physical domination by Leicester of the Munster pack, six of whom are starting for Ireland, Leamy see's Wales as much of a challenge as a job. With quiet determination without brashness nor doubt, Leamy knows reputations are at stake in the Millennium Stadium.

"I don't think Leicester has a bearing. That was a Heineken Cup game in a different competition, a different team," he says. "It's a different mindset here. For the guys who were involved it was a kick in the ass- but we're looking forward to the weekend. It's a great opportunity to put it to rights straight away, to go out there and put those bad memories in the past and move on.

"We've lost matches before and come back. That's the nature of the game. We've probably been spoiled in the last year in the amount of big games we've played and big games that we won. Rugby isn't always fair. Leicester came out that day and beat us fair. I think there's nothing better than a defeat to focus the mind. You certainly learn a lot more about yourself in defeat than you do in victory.

"Maybe we took the foot off the pedal a small bit but we know what we are capable of. We know when we play well and we know when we don't play well. We don't need anyone to tell us that. We know what happened in Thomond Park. We know the six guys that were involved and know that wasn't good enough and we plan not to let that happen again."

The Wales team will not be known until today after coach Gareth Jenkins hears the outcome of a number of injury evaluations as well as the future of Gareth Thomas, but the possibility is Martyn Williams and Ryan Jones will make up two thirds of the backrow. However, the composition really doesn't matter.

Leamy's experience in playing European Cup is that weak backrows are not found in club teams, never mind national sides. It is important too Ireland not only move on from Munster but also from the autumn.

"You either get better or you get worse," he says. "You can't aim to stay the same because invariably you'll end up being left behind so we've got to look where we can improve. Yes, there are definitely areas where we need to be more clinical. We sat down at the beginning of camp and whereas it would have been easier to look at the positives, we sat down and looked at the negatives. We looked at little things to see where we could improve."

Standing still has never been part of Leamy's mindset. He's an aggressive all-action player, one the Irish team occasionally look to for a leading hard edge. Cardiff will be the challenge all right, the Irish pack's hair-of-the-dog or their downfall.

But right now it's a challenge Leamy seems to want.