Devin Toner is expecting a battle of wills when the Six Nations' two most disciplined teams meet in Dublin next week.
Both Ireland and Wales have conceded a combined nine penalties in their opening two fixtures, compared to 18 for Scotland, 19 for England, and 23 for France and Italy.
"They're going to be a very tough team," the second-row told RTÉ Sport.
"I think they gave away two penalties against England so obviously one of their main focuses going into the Six Nations was discipline.
"That's one of the things that we've worked on over the last couple of years hugely, with Joe.
"It's going to be a pretty clean game I think. It'll be easy for the referee!"
Wales were controversially edged out 12-6 by holders England last week and Toner expects them to try to take out some of that frustration on Saturday week.
"They're going to be really up for this one," he said.
"They were really unlucky. They did really well against Scotland as well.
"I think they're going to try and just keep possession and try not give us possession at all."
Warren Gatland's side have conceded just 19 points in two games but the Meath man is confident his colleagues can build on last week's eight-try demolition of Italy.
"They've always had a really good defence.
"They're really good in the contact area, over the ball and judging when to throw players in or not.
"We're going to have it up against us but we have a lot of pride in our attack. We've been ticking well over the last couple of weeks so hopefully we're going to get a few tries.
Ireland will be without Robbie Henshaw (shoulder) and Josh van der Flier (knee) after the Leinster pair suffered tournament-ending injuries against Italy and France respectively.
"It's heart-wrenching for them that they're not going to be playing again," said Toner.
"Robbie has grown into a leader of the team over the last couple of years and he's going to really be missed.
"Josh was just kind of getting his foot in the door and playing really well for Leinster and Ireland."
