There’s a slogan painted on the walls at Parc y Scarlets, “Welcome to Heart and Soul Rugby Country.” They ought to etch that in the arrivals area of Cardiff Airport too, just to make it more obvious. When you come here it’s to play a nation, not a team.

The initial plan for this column was a tactical assessment of Wales and a view on how Ireland could hurt them. Yet the more I thought about this the more I knew that to delve into game plans and counter game plans would be to miss the forest for the trees.

Adams evades Kinghorn to score against Scotland last weekend. He has taken his Worcester form to a different level with Wales ROBERTPERRY/EPA

The truth is that Ireland, and pretty much everybody that takes a keen interest in rugby, knows what Wales are going to do. They’ll kick