Dan Sheehan: Ireland embracing home comforts at the Aviva Stadium

The matchday experience at the Aviva Stadium has come in for a bit of a kicking in recent weeks.

Outside of when Ireland take on the big-hitters of the game, the atmosphere for Irish rugby internationals can feel flat, for a variety of reasons. A Sunday afternoon kick-off against Italy was always to be a bit of a dud, particularly when we'd been treated to such an explosive and rare occasion in Marseille a few days earlier. The fact that the game fell before a down-week in the Guinness Six Nations only gave coverage of the Aviva atmosphere a greater chance to stretch its legs around the news cycle.

If the matchday experience is a bit too corporate, it doesn't seem to be affecting the players.

This afternoon, Ireland will go in search of their 18th home win in a row when Wales visit the Aviva Stadium, a three year run of games dating back to February 2021, during which time every one of the game's Six Nations and Rugby Championship sides have come to Dublin and returned home beaten.

With every game that passes, players are forgetting what it's like to lose at home. Of the starting team to face Wales, only six have lost multiple times at the Aviva Stadium.

Tadhg Beirne's record at Lansdowne Road reads 18 wins from 19, James Lowe has won 10 of 11 and Jamison Gibson-Park has 16 victories out of a possible 17, that single defeat for each of them coming to France in 2021.

Calvin Nash, Jack Crowley, Ciarán Frawley and Joe McCarthy are yet to experience a home loss, albeit from a small sample size, but for Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan, a home Irish defeat is alien.

Having missed the 2021 Six Nations, Doris' home record is a perfect 20 from 20, while Sheehan only knows victory from his 11 Aviva Stadium games in green.

"We speak about