The 2025 Guinness Six Nations gets underway this evening as France host Wales in Paris, while Ireland start the defence of their crown against England tomorrow (4.45pm).
With Andy Farrell on Lions duty, it's up to interim head coach Simon Easterby to lead Ireland to what would be an unprecedented three-in-a-row.
In fact, that feat has never been achieved outright in any iteration of the tournament, going back to the 1883 Home Nations Championship.
England in 2002 and 2018, France in 2008 and Wales in 2014 have all had the chance to win three in a row in the Six Nations era, while Ireland in 2016 were also on for a hat-trick.
Each time the back-to-back champions fell short and getting the job done this time would be possibly the most impressive of all.
The competition will, for the first time, feature the 20-minute red card rule, while recent laws protecting scrum-halves and lineout throws, are also in force.
Perhaps surprisingly installed as tournament favourites, Ireland will have to significantly improve from a lacklustre Autumn Nations Series.
They were distinctly second best against New Zealand and never really purred in the subsequent wins over Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
"There is a lot more in us and hopefully you’ll get to see that in the next few weeks," said scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.
Hosting England and France at home has probably given the bookies cause to hand Ireland the favourites tag but tomorrow's visitors, despite five losses in their last six games, will still arrive convinced they can back up last season's smash and grab.
Heavy underdogs going into the round-four game at Twickenham, England executed their game plan to perfection, even if it took a late dropgoal to win the match.
Maro Itoje is the new captain and looks to be close to his best.
"If we play our stuff, if we are the team we believe we can be, we can win," the Saracens lock said. "There is not a team in this tournament that we can't beat."
Scotland await Ireland in round two and, for all their improvements and close calls against the Irish in the last number of years, must operate without injured captain Sione Tuipulotu, central to everything that has been good about Gregor Townsend’s side.
A revenge win over Italy in Murrayfield tomorrow is well within their reach and an eight-day run into the next game will only add to their expectation.
Lock Scott Cummings is also sidelined with a broken arm
"I feel we’re a better team now from the pain we went through in the France game and the Italy game in particular," said Townsend, whose side finished fourth last season and beat Australia in the pick of their November series.
"We were a better team against Ireland."
Ireland’s round three opponents Wales, currently on a run of 12 consecutive losses, finished last season bottom of the pile with head coach Warren Gatland twice offering to resign in 2024.
Back row Jac Morgan is key for them, while Liam Williams and Taulupe Faletau, missing tonight through injury, provide plenty of experience.
A boisterous Stade de France crowd will expect the full show from their superstars so more Welsh misery is on the cards.
"There is no expectation on us," Gatland said ahead of the tournament. "People are writing us off, but I have said this before, you write us off at your peril.
"We have to create some confidence and self-belief within our group. We need to create a siege mentality."
There are always twists and turns along the way but the round-four visit of Les Bleus to Dublin is likely to have real jeopardy even if both teams don’t reach that juncture with a full winning record.
The return of Antoine Dupont, after missing the last championship to focus on Sevens, more than offsets the loss of Gael Fickou and Damian Penaud, for the opening rounds, and Charles Ollivon, who won’t feature at all.
"I'm happy to be back in this beautiful tournament," Dupont said at the Six Nations launch.
"We've got a lot of ambition for this tournament; we have the potential to win it and I'm excited about that."
While Leinster, with 23 Ireland squad members, are unbeaten this season, the form and firepower of Bordeaux and Toulouse means France are the hot ticket coming into the tournament.
Those two sides provide 10 of tonight’s starting XV for Fabien Galthie.
No team has ever won a Grand Slam when meeting Italy in round-five but if Ireland arrive to Rome with a championship on the line, they would really fancy their chances.
Under Gonzalo Quesada, Italy won twice and drew last season, and in Tommaso Menoncello, have the 2024 player of the tournament.
Whether they reach the final day on 15 March with the same enthusiasm and bodies for the fight will also play a part in how that plays out.
Game on.
Follow a live blog on Ireland v England in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday from 4.45pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Scotland v Italy in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
