Four down, one to go, a Triple Crown already in the bag and their hands firmly on the championship thanks to a handy points cushion, Wales have a second grand slam in four years in their sights. A century after they claimed the first, their 10th is on offer - although its quality will be measured as much by which France they play at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday as by the turnaround Warren Gatland and co have managed in five months.
The New Zealander says that only the championship matters, but the Six Nations needs Marc Lièvremont to take his eyes off 2011 and concentrate on this season's finale. None of which mattered, of course, to those members of the Dragonhood who celebrated in Grafton Street on Saturday night; they had witnessed the most emphatic of four-point victories.
Telling statistics are rare, but Wales spent more than 60 minutes in the Irish half and that after being under the cosh early on. That was when Ireland had their only chance turned down by the video referee and ran out of ideas.
Once David Changleng had ruled Mike Phillips' tackle and Shane Williams' left boot had combined to keep Shane Horgan's outstretched arm from the line, and 6-0 was not to become 11-0, Wales took over.
A cheeky Williams chip and two Irish misdemeanours later and Wales were in control. Their pack, particularly the back row, upped the ante, Ronan O'Gara was forced to tackle rather than torture with kicks that defied the jet stream inside Croke Park, and Wales imposed the iron will which Gatland and his defence coach, Shaun Edwards, have given them.
Only when Eoin Reddan dipped into his bag of tricks did they look marginally discomfited. They even managed two yellow cards and 20 minutes down to 14 men - ill-discipline Gatland says he will address - when Phillips dropped his knee on Marcus Horan and Martyn Williams stopped Reddan supporting a rare Irish attack by tripping the scrum-half.
But no one typifies Wales's new control better than Gavin Henson. He again confined himself to doing the simple things - and one 65-metre hoof into the wind - right.
However, with the Welsh pack providing a steady stream of possession - they lost only one set piece - and Stephen Jones directing operations, Henson ran straight, holding the defence and, aided and abetted by the clever offloading of Tom Shanklin, set up three or four overlaps which could have created tries.
Instead the only score came from yet another piece of devil from Shane Williams - the tiny winger backing himself against a trio of green shirts and leaving all three flapping to equal Gareth Thomas' Welsh record.
So how does the team that retreated from Nantes, bundled out of the World Cup by Fiji, find itself on the brink of a grand slam? "It's much the same people, but we're playing differently," said Martyn Williams. "Discipline. Yes it's discipline, but we're still to play for 80 minutes."
Lièvremont could savour that this week. Saturday's battle of the coaches was won hands down by Gatland, the last Ireland coach to lose to Wales in Dublin. Eddie O'Sullivan, the man who took over from him a year later in 2001, must now be another whose tenure is under threat.
Injury did him a favour in revealing Rob Kearney to be a Test full-back, thus ending arguments over the position which have emphasised O'Sullivan's recent problems, but it looks like robbing him of his captain at Twickenham. He will also be hard pressed to hold back his board's demands that he work with a team manager and hire a backs coach.
Gatland could afford to play games when he suggested Wales are "a couple of layers" below the best in the southern hemisphere and needed possibly two more years to develop.
True, they still lack confidence in the lineout - hence only two Welsh kicks to touch - and there are bigger and better packs than the Irish to test them, but the camp is united in embracing the short and sharp ways of their new coaches. "I'm frightened to ask them to do anything, because when I do they do it exactly," said Edwards.
And in four Tests they have conceded only two tries - one from a cross kick and one from a botched throw to a five-metre lineout. None to a side running at them, although France might if Lièvremont finally takes the Six Nations seriously.
