New-look Wales still unlikely to frighten Ireland too much

The Six Nations returns as the first rest week comes to an end.

Ireland will visit Wales at the Principality Stadium, with both teams bolstering their playing squads during the week.

From Ireland's perspective, they’ll be aiming for continuity in their dominance thus far. Wales will have a new bounce after Warren Gatland stepped away and attack-minded Matt Sherratt has come in at short notice.

Sherratt is known for his attacking game and with a fresh start, he might bring some excitement to an area of the game where Wales have struggled. The challenge will be to provide enough clarity with just a week to implement his ideas.

Talisman Caelan Doris will miss the visit to Cardiff and there really is no replacing his workrate, ruck intelligence and ball carrying. However, if ever there was a time where Ireland could reshuffle their back row, now is it.

Jack Conan would be starting with most other teams. He’s been in his best form for quite some time and a start would have been on the cards at some stage. The plan might not have been to rest Doris, who has featured in 41 of Ireland’s last 42 matches, but they’ll be confident that it won’t disrupt their play.

Most of the changes are expected in the Welsh side. With a new head coach and the return of a handful of quality players, it’s probably the toughest game for Ireland to preview. They don’t have any evidence of what’s coming at them.

Gareth Anscombe returns under Sherratt, which is one of the major problem areas that Wales had under Gatland. There are a few out-half options that Gatland could have used to give this inexperienced and underperforming team a focal point, yet he refused to do it.

He tried to plug the gap with Ben Thomas, who plays most of his rugby at inside-centre. A