Ireland will be hoping to open their 2022 Six Nations Campaign with a win this weekend, with Wales set to visit Dublin on Saturday afternoon for what could be an intriguing contest.
Andy Farrell has named an exciting looking side for the fixture, with the team's front row especially formidable. The trio of Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher, and Tadhg Furlong is perhaps the best in that area in world rugby at the moment, combining brilliantly for both Leinster and Ireland in recent times.
They excel in a number of areas although there is set to be an interesting change made to one key aspect of their games in this year's Six Nations.
The tournament is set to trial a new scrum law, one which is being implemented in order to ease the pressure placed on hookers.
The law will clamp down on 'axial loading', which is the pressure that occurs when hookers lean their heads on their opposition for number for balance when referees call 'bind' in the buildup to a scrum.
The new rule will require hookers to put their weight on a 'brake foot' until the referee calls 'set', which should reduce the pressure placed on the players' necks as a result.
Ronan Kelleher in favour of new Six Nations scrum law
As someone who plays in this position, Ronan Kelleher welcomes the change.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's game against Wales, he said that there have been occasions in the past when his body was heavily impacted by the rigours of the scrum.
Often, in recent years, there would be a lot of weight on binds and that leads to pre-engagements and scrums going down.
So it's about preventative measures to protect the hookers’ and tightheads’ necks really. Now that weight will not be on your head, but on your front foot, so there should still be a gap to fire into as a front row.
To be honest, some games it would be worse than others but it got pretty bad there for a while.
You just had to deal with it I suppose and a lot of it would come down to your recovery during the week and how you'd recover your body to make sure you were ready to go again at the weekend.
I suppose at the time it was just part of the job but now I’m glad they’re putting in measures to try and fix it now.
Rugby has been attempting to reduce the possibility of head and neck injuries in the sport in recent times, something that is a welcome change. This is just the latest step in that process.
As for Kelleher, he will no doubt be hoping that less stress on his body will allow him to continue to perform at a high level for longer.
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