Let the Six Nations battles commence

As the Six Nations enters the penultimate weekend of this season's tournament, all teams will be keen to maximise their position in the table and get the best possible outcomes from the last two weeks of the championship.

Ireland welcome Wales to Croke Park in the first encounter of the weekend with the Triple Crown and a possible Championship in their sights.

Their victory at Twickenham restored Irish confidence after a lack lustre performance in Paris although they will be aware of Wales's attacking ability and the superb finishers in their back three of Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny and the talismanic Shane Williams, who has scored a try in the dying seconds of the last two matches.

In fact, expect one of the highlights of the match to be the duel between Williams and his Ospreys wing counterpart Tommy Bowe as both are in excellent form, Bowe scoring two tries in his side's 20-16 defeat of England last time out.

Wales, still smarting from their 26-20 Friday night home loss to the French, have the belief to play well in Dublin if they can get all the necessary components right.

Their corresponding win at the same venue in 2008 led to their Grand Slam success although there are significant changes to this Welsh team, particularly in the front five of the scrum.

For Wales, the game against France was an improvement in many respects from the previous two matches because, generally, they controlled possession and despite gifting the French two interception tries, found their set-piece in better shape.

The question for Wales is, how do they run the Irish pack off the park in the first half without conceding points in order to dominate the final quarter of the game?

Ireland will not play a containing game and will note that Wales have the worst defensive record in the tournament, which augurs well for an exciting, well-contested encounter.

England travel to Murrayfield later today with still much to prove.

They did show some attacking intent early in their defeat against Ireland, but do not yet know when to run and when to kick.

There is no expectation of a feast of rugby from the English camp and manager Martin Johnson will be entirely focused on winning.

Conversely, the Scots have impressed in this year's championship, but due to a great extent to their own undoing, have failed to register one win.

If they are unable to beat the English at home then their only, albeit unlikely, victory would be to conquer the Irish at Croke Park on the following Saturday.

Andy Robinson's Scotland, however, will rise to the Calcutta Cup challenge having won the corresponding fixture at Murrayfield on the last two occasions.

Scotland will again attempt to move the English pack around the field and will hope to match their first-half performance against the Welsh.

Italy - victors over Scotland in the last round - travel to Paris to take on this season's only Grand Slam candidates France.

The Azzurri are a much more mature side defensively than they have been at any time since joining the Six Nations in 2000 and will not be a pushover.

France have not hammered any side this season and have failed to release their back three sufficiently and there will be an expectation from the supporters of Les Bleus to see their team in free-flowing fashion.

Ireland, England and France are probable favourites this weekend, but this tournament teaches one to expect the unexpected.