At stake in Cardiff on Saturday is the title, Grand Slam and Triple Crown.

Victory for Ireland would give them the lot - a first RBS 6 Natiions championship, the Triple Crown and the end of a 61-year wait for Grand Slam glory.

Not since Karl Mullen's team of 1948 has an Ireland team swept all before it in Five or Six Nations rugby.

Wales though, have plenty of incentive to gatecrash the party, with a win guaranteeing them a third Triple Crown success in five seasons, while victory by 13 points or more would secure a successful title defence.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has recalled his tried and tested warriors after making nine changes for last weekend's fumbling Italian job when his team only edged out the Azzurri thanks to substitute Tom Shanklin's late converted try.

Shanklin is one of eight alterations this time around, replacing Jamie Roberts in midfield and renewing his 2005 and 2008 Grand Slam centre partnership with Gavin Henson. The potentially bad news for Ireland is Wales have never lost a championship Test Henson has started - 11 and counting.

Elsewhere, skipper Ryan Jones returns to the back-row, as does flanker Martyn Williams, whose openside battle with Ireland's David Wallace could prove the contest's pivotal individual tussle, and experienced fly-half Stephen Jones replaces James Hook.

Ireland boss Declan Kidney, whose Munster team won Heineken Cup finals at the Millennium Stadium in 2006 and 2008, has made three changes to the team that edged out Scotland last Saturday, with scrum-half Tomas O'Leary, hooker Jerry Flannery and number eight Jamie Heaslip all restored.

It is a fiendishly difficult game to call, although Wales have to be rated outsiders for the title, given they haven't beaten Ireland by a minimum 13-point margin since 1983.

Three times though, Ireland have seen their Grand Slam hopes dashed in the final game of a championship by Wales - 1926, 1951 and 1969.