SIX NATIONS DIGEST: Oddly enough seven New Zealanders have been hailed as the key to Welsh success this season. Add Warren Gatland's name and that brings the number to eight. Two Welsh clubs, the Ospreys and Cardiff Blues have qualified for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, while Wales are still on course for the Grand Slam.
Outhalf Justin Marshall and loose forwards Filo Tiatia and Marty Holah should play with Ospreys against Saracens next month while Number 8 Xavier Rush, fullback Ben Blair, lock Paul Tito and halfback Jason Spice are regulars in the Cardiff team. Then of course there is Warren charging into Croke Park on the back of three wins with the national side.
"The experience our Kiwis have brought to us has been an inspiration," Ryan Jones, the Wales captain told the Wales on Sunday newspaper. "That is why you sign players like that. They have been there and done it and have such a positive effect. People talk about too many foreigners but I think our Kiwis have been fantastic for us."
Tries please
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll is just one try away from moving into a tie for second place in the all-time try scorers' list in the Five/Six Nations Championship behind Scotland's Ian Smith. The Leinster centre is on 17, one adrift of England's Rory Underwood and Cyril Lowe and the legendary Welsh scrumhalf Gareth Edwards.
O'Driscoll will, with tighthead prop John Hayes, be Ireland's most-capped player on duty at Croke Park this Saturday; both are making their 83rd test appearances in the Ireland shirt.
Croke Park draw worth a punt
Ireland and Wales have met on 112 occasions and the Principality lead the head-to-head statistics by 61 victories to 45 with just six matches drawn.
The bookmakers seem to expect a close-run affair at Croke Park on Saturday; they have Ireland at minus 5 points in the handicap betting.
For those who wish to punt on a draw, this column has done a little research.
Paddy Power are offering 20 to 1 against the game finishing level, while taking into consideration the handicap (Ireland -5, Wales +5).
The draw is available at a slightly longer 22 to 1.
Of the six occasions the fixture ended in a draw four were in Ireland (three in Dublin, one in Belfast) and the sequence in terms of years between each draw is 39, 22, 11, 12, 17. The last time the match finished with the honours shared was in Cardiff, 1991 (21-21).
For the record:
1890: Wales 1 goal Ireland 1 goal. 1929: Ireland 5 Wales 5 1951: Wales 3 Ireland 3 1962: Ireland 3 Wales 3 1974: Ireland 9 Wales 9 1991: Wales 21 Ireland 21
Wembley reprise would do nicely
On Saturday Wales will visit Croke Park for the first time, but the last time the Ireland-Wales Six Nations Championship match was played outside either Cardiff or Lansdowne Road was in 1999 when the Millennium Stadium was under construction.
The game was in fact staged in neither Ireland nor Wales but in England - at the old Wembley stadium in London - and saw hooker Keith Wood inspire Ireland to a richly deserved 29-23 victory over Wales in the final year of the tournament's incarnation as the Five Nations Championship.
Ireland were 26-6 up after 50 minutes, having scored tries through Kevin Maggs and Wood.
Outhalf David Humphreys tagged on 19 points with the boot.
Records made to be broken
Ireland's record victory over Wales was in 2002 at Lansdowne Road when they thumped the visitors 54-10.
The game will remain a landmark from an Irish perspective for four reasons.
David Humphreys's 22 points represent the highest total by an Irishman in the fixture. It was Eddie O'Sullivan's first game in charge of Ireland. And Paul O'Connell made his Ireland debut.
The Munster lock scored a try that day but has no recollection of doing so and little recollection of the day in general. He caught a stray elbow from a Welsh forward, was knocked out, played on for another half an hour and during that time scored a try.
The match also marked a half century of caps for the Munster frontrow icon Peter Clohessy.
Monty first up with hat-trick
It's every rugby player's dream to score a try on a debut, a schoolboy wish that Robert Montgomery fulfilled in his first game for Ireland. The Belfast-born secondrow managed the feat against England in Dublin. He capped that achievement on his third appearance when becoming the first Irish rugby international to score a hat-trick of tries in a test match. It was against Wales at Birkenhead on March 12th, 1887. That fact he did it from the second row of the scrum is all the more staggering.
It should be noted that Ireland actually lost the game under the scoring values of the era: Wales managed a drop-goal and a try to Ireland's three tries and the IRB World Rugby Yearbook doesn't give values, hence no scoreline.
Montgomery, who was capped out of Cambridge University, scored four tries in three tests but would go on to win just two more caps: against England in 1891 and Wales in 1892.
He is still the only Irishman to have scored a hat-trick of tries against Wales.
