Caelan Doris feels that, just like Ireland against England, Wales will feel they have a big performance in them.
Andy Farrell's side had struggled in the aftermath of winning the 2024 Six Nations, losing meekly to New Zealand (twice), France (twice) and South Africa.
Amid concern around the trajectory of the team, the squad and management had been steadfast in their belief that they would soon turn the corner, which they duly did in a barnstorming 42-21 demolition job in Twickenham.
Wales' situation is not directly comparable but Steve Tandy's men - on a 14-game losing streak in the championship - showed signs of improvement in the second half of their defeat to France and when running Scotland close in round three's 26-23 loss.
"I'm sure in camp for them, they've been taking a lot of positives from that game," Ireland skipper Doris told reporters after today's captain's run at Aviva Stadium.
"They've obviously had a two-week run-up like us into this.
"I'm sure they've built quite a bit of belief through how they've trained, through some of the pictures they've seen. It's going to be a challenge.
"Friday night's a pretty special time to do it as well.
"I think they've grown throughout the tournament. You can see the progression game on game.
"They put it up to Scotland in the most recent fixture. They started well. They've clearly invested a lot of time in their attack.
"It's a good attack and it's going to be a challenge for our defence. They've got different layers to it.
"They can play wide and deep, the forwards have great ability to play tips and plusses at the line and they're very unpredictable in terms of two-sided, lots of quick taps, playing out.
"We saw (Louis) Rees-Zammit run the ball from deep. Tomos Williams wants to keep a high tempo, snipe, quick throw-ins, quick tap, so it's going to be important for us to be always on and be ready for those."
France top the table on 15 points ahead of their trip to Murrayfield and the visit of England in round five but Ireland will be hoping for a Les Bleus slip-up that might even result in an unlikely title shot.
However, what's clearly on the table is retaining their Triple Crown.
"It's game by game," added the 27-year-old, who will win his 59th cap.
"It's about performances really, to be honest with you.
"It's about building on what we showed in Twickenham. There's a lot of hard work gone in over the last couple of weeks since then and some really good training days.
"We've trained here against the [Under] 20s, which was good to get a run against them. It's just continuing the growth of this team.
"We've got a pretty clear plan of where we want to go in terms of structures and the way we want to play and it's about chasing that down week on week."
This time last year, Ireland travelled to Wales without a single representative from Ulster and such is the impact of Richie Murphy's side in the last 12 months that there are seven players in the matchday squad, including replacement scrum-half Nathan Doak (below), who will make his international debut.
"They've been great," said the Mayo man of Tom O'Toole, Nick Timoney, Tom Stewart, Stuart McCloskey, Robert Baloucoune, Jacob Stockdale and 24-year-old Doak.
"They've brought proper competitiveness, which we're building in the squad, which is great. Training has been competitive, there's been an edge to it.
"Some of the Ulster boys in particular have stood out over the last couple of weeks, obviously Rob, Stu, Nick, as well as I mentioned, so, it's good to see more of them in.
"[Nathan has] been great.
"He's a pretty experienced player at this stage. He's got over 100 caps for Ulster, he's been around a little bit and he's been in camp quite a few times as well.
"So he's calm, he's got a good head on his shoulders, he's trained really well this week, so yeah, looking forward to seeing him off the bench tomorrow."
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