Paul O’Connell, complete with hood and scarf, was a “vocal” presence at both the side of the pitch for yesterday’s training session at their Carton House base and at the squad meeting which preceded it. In the presumption that the Irish captain returns to training today, insofar as one can forecast the duration of a chest infection, his recall will be the only change to the pack for Saturday’s eagerly anticipated encounter with Wales.

Whereas the reigning champions have also recalled Gethin Jenkins and Andrew Coombs for the injured Luke Charteris, as well as their captain Sam Warburton, Ireland appear intent on making only one alteration up front, with Dan Tuohy returning to the bench as O'Connell resumes his partnership with Devin Toner which functioned so impressively against the All Blacks.

Fine performance
While there is comfort in Tuohy's fine performance against Scotland, not least were O'Connell again ruled out, Irish forwards coach John Plumtree effectively confirmed as much yesterday.

“Well, Paulie’s our captain. If he doesn’t make the weekend then obviously it’s nice for Dan that he’s had that start and to have that confidence from playing really well against Scotland if he gets another opportunity this week. But I’m sure Paul will be okay.”

Plumtree agreed that the manner in which Tuohy filled the void in his first start at home and in the Six Nations was particularly pleasing.

“It’s not easy being called in on the morning to be told that you’re playing. Your preparation is not quite the same. So it took a fair bit of mind work in terms of what he was going to bring from the first minute and I was really proud of him and the way he stepped up,” said Plumtree who added that Tuohy had achieved certain goals and more consistency with Ulster in the last two months, as well being “a little bit tougher in a couple of areas of the game I wanted him to be a little bit tougher in”.

Cian Healy last week said Plumtree continuously informs his forwards that they are a good pack who need to become a great pack. Explaining this mantra, Plumtree added: “In my mind Irish forwards are good but they’re not great and that was where we wanted to go. We have some really good individuals in that pack – probably every one of them – but to become great you’ve got to work hard together and that was the challenge I dished out to them.”

While he would not claim that any of his forwards are entitled to be named in a World XV, Plumtree maintained they have contenders in name-checking the likely starting unit, from the “outstanding” Cian Healy, the “underrated” Rory Best (“from hookers that I’ve worked with in the past, he’s right up there in terms of his work-rate which is huge”) to Mike Ross, who “is stepping up and playing some really nice rugby and played really well last week”.

“Dev Toner is a guy I was a little bit worried about when I first saw him, how he’d be able to play quality Test match rugby with a frame like that,” admitted Plumtree, “but he’s proving me wrong, he’s been consistent and is playing quite nicely. Paul doesn’t need me to talk about him, he’s an outstanding player.”

He hailed Peter O’Mahony’s “work-rate and accuracy in what he does and I can see why he leads Munster. Jamie Heaslip is an outstanding player and I’m really happy with the way Chris Henry has been playing for Ulster over the last few weeks as well.”

Healy, whose heavy workload against Scotland added strain to his troublesome ankle, sat out training yesterday along with Rob Kearney, due to a kick on his calf. But manager Mick Kearney expressed confidence both will training tomorrow.

With Luke Fitzgerald and Eoin Reddan ruled out of consideration this week, and Tommy Bowe and Donnacha Ryan not scheduled to return for their provinces until the week after next, the only other selection issue this week would appear to be whether to recall Gordon D’Arcy or retain Luke Marshall.

For his part, Warren Gatland resisted recalling Jonathan Davies to his line-up – after the centre came through his first 40 minutes of rugby since November at the weekend – in restricting his alterations to those three changes up front.

Little surprises
"Well, they have sort of been there, done that, haven't they? Gethin Jenkins has, Warburton has, if you were naming their pack you would put them in it, wouldn't you? They have experience of big Test matches. They don't change what they do much," said Plumtree.

He added Ireland would have to be able to adjust to any little surprises; “But they will be looking to outmuscle us and we have got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

This physical Welsh threat emanates as much from their backline. “They have got some outstanding individuals, especially in midfield there, game-breakers, guys who can get go-forward from nothing and create an opportunity where there is an offload and can get behind you. They have got a real belief that they are more physical than the opposition and they can get on top of them and that is something they’ll be looking to do at the weekend. They do lots of things really well. They have big backs and are possibly one of the biggest back-lines in the world.”