France away may have presented a bigger challenge, but Ireland's meeting with Italy at the Aviva Stadium provides a different kind of test.
Andy Farrell has generally been a fan of continuity in his selections. Some would say that continuity was to a fault in the World Cup last year.
Having given three inexperienced players a chance to impress in Marseille last week, it would have been very tempting to simply run it back this afternoon against Italy.
Jack Crowley, Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash are all still learning the ropes of Test rugby, and there were obvious merits in giving them another opportunity to gel alongside the experienced Test crew.
The RTÉ Rugby panel discuss Andy Farrell's selection
Instead, Farrell has decided to shuffle his deck with six changes to his side for the visit of the Italians to Dublin.
Of course, if you're going to rotate your squad, history would show that Italy is the game to do it in.
This is the third year in a row that the Ireland coach has made six personnel changes for the meeting with the Azzurri.
In recent years, the timing of the fixture also made sense to rotate. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 Ireland's game against Italy fell in Round 3, wedged in between the fallow weeks, presenting an ideal opportunity to give some of the frontliners a decent break ahead of the run in.
While injuries to Tadhg Furlong (above), Peter O'Mahony and Bundee Aki forced his hand somewhat, Farrell could have resisted the urge to make further changes, but instead is using the first home game of the campaign to give some inexperienced players an opportunity to impress, while affording some veterans a chance to prove a point.
The selection of Caelan Doris as captain looks like a statement. With O'Mahony out due to a calf injury, Farrell has opted for Doris over his Leinster team-mate James Ryan to skipper the side, despite Ryan having filled that role on several occasions.
While Ryan is the most experienced of the six new faces, it's a big opportunity for the 27-year-old to remind everyone of his abilities.
This time last year the second row looked to be in the best form of his career, as he scored two tries during the Six Nations, while he had been the best player on the pitch in the Champions Cup final for Leinster against La Rochelle before having to go off injured just before the half hour mark.
The Leinster co-captain found himself as a fall-guy for Ireland's lineout issues during the World Cup, losing his place in the starting line-up to Iain Henderson for the final pool game against Scotland, before missing the quarter-final exit to New Zealand due to a hand injury.
With Tadhg Beirne not playing this week, the lineout calling responsibilities should fall back on Ryan (below) against Italy, and there will certainly be some pressure on him to maintain last week's impressive numbers.
He also couldn't have avoided the reaction to Joe McCarthy's explosive Six Nations debut last week. With pundits at home and abroad heralding 'Big Joe' as the missing piece in the Irish pack, Ryan will be out to prove a point.
Furlong's place is taken by Finlay Bealham, who has proven himself in the last two years to be a more than capable deputy.
The Connacht prop missed a day in camp this week as he rushed home to Galway to be there for the birth of his first son, Joaquin. Giving the 32-year-old a start after what has been a hectic week is a real vote of confidence from Farrell.
Away from the enforced changes, there's also a big opportunity for both Craig Casey and Ryan Baird to impress.
The pair, who both made their debuts in this fixture in 2021, have impressed for their provinces since the World Cup, with Casey nudging ahead of Conor Murray as Munster's first-choice scrum-half, and Baird holding off Jack Conan for some Champions Cup starts.
For Casey, it will be just a fourth Irish start and third versus Italy, but there should be no reason for Ireland to suffer a lack of continuity, with the 24-year-old partnering his Munster team-mate Jack Crowley in the half-backs.
His speed of service has always served him well, but the challenge now for Casey is to refine that as a more refined decision maker. In England's win against Italy last week, they looked most dangerous when Alex Mitchell kept the defence honest around the fringes of the ruck.
With Casey (below) starting, and Gibson-Park on the bench, Ireland have that threat.
Jeremy Loughman gets an opportunity on the bench over Cian Healy, but the prop's minutes will largely depend on the scoreboard. When the game is in the balance, Farrell is often reluctant to give Andrew Porter a break, but establishing a long-term loosehead back-up needs to be a priority.
A much-changed bench also afford a chance to both Harry Byrne and Jordan Larmour, who are set to earn their first appearances in an Irish shirt since 2021.
Stitching all of those changes together is the challenge.
In the past, Ireland have tended to go through the motions in games when they have rotated heavily, such as their scrappy win against Fiji in 2022, and the final World Cup warm-up over Samoa last year.
The stakes weren't as high for those games. In the Six Nations, there's nowhere to hide.
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