IT was always going to be the toughest examination of Ireland's Grand Slam ambitions and so it proved at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday when a thrilling second half saw Joe Schmidt's men come up just short.
RTÉ tweaked their line-up for the Wales match. Tom McGurk and George Hook were retained at 9 and 10, but Shane Horgan and Conor O'Shea were in for Brent Pope and Ronan O'Gara.
George did not have the affable Pope as a foil as Brent was enlisted, along with former Munster coach and Ireland player Donal Linehan, as the sideline colour man - the colour being mostly green from Popey's huge scarf which was as broad as the grin on his face - presumably due to not being stationed beside
Hooky for what was certain to be an attritional stint for the pundits. Brent and Donal beamed about the great atmosphere and incessant singing and reminisced that it had always been like this in Cardiff, whether here or at the old Arms Park.
McGurk called the Millennium Stadium 'an opera house', but Ireland hit quite a few bum notes early on.
Much of the pre-match talk had been about Ireland's kicking game. McGurk invited former Gaelic footballer and Ireland's plucker-of-that-high-ball-out-of-the-sky-against England star Shane Horgan to highlight the massive contribution of Ireland's kicking half-backs.
Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton (right) would hold the key to this game with their kicking, it was felt. But Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea wasn't feeling it. Remembering an Australian coach's dalliance with former Kerry star Mickey Ned O'Sullivan and the coach's amazement with how good Irish players were in the air, O'Shea declared that he "was not here to watch a Gaelic football or Aussie Rules match."
Horgan accepted that, saying "the idea that Ireland are only a kicking team is nonsense". George, as is so often the case, was not convinced. Inviting Horgan to argue against him, he asserted that rugby did not begin "the day and arrrgh players started get paid for it. It's over a hundred years old and in that hundred and a bit years games have always been won by haaalf bahhhhcks."
As it turned out early in the first half, it was the boot of Leigh Halfpenny that did all the damage for Wales and Sexton's first attempt at getting Ireland on the board fell wide of the post.
But, by half-time, Sexton's boot had Ireland back to within six points.
George thought Ireland should be "kicking more not less".
McGurk mused that Wales had a few Gaelic players. Horgan agreed that this exploded the myth that Gaelic Games had given Irish players an advantage in the air.
He said: "Wales are good in the air, Ireland need to be dominating the air."
God, Shane, don't let Michael O'Leary hear you saying that.
As it was, running at Wales almost worked for Ireland in the second half, but they couldn't find a way through a resolute home defence.
They'll be kicking themselves they let this one go.