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Saturday's game against Italy was always going to be a date with destiny to set up another date with destiny in Paris.
With Brian O'Driscoll getting a fitting send-off in his last home game from Ireland, Joe Schmidt's squad can now try to win the Six Nations championship on French soil.
To review Saturday's game and look at the plus points ahead of the trip to play France, we were joined by Trevor Hogan and Liam Toland on Monday Night Rugby.
The lads paid tribute to O'Driscoll as he performed more than admirably on Saturday. But they also highlighted the contribution of his long-time partner in crime Gordon D'Arcy.
"With all the attention on O'Driscoll, you forget what he brought," said Trevor. "He gets over that gain line. His feet are so good. He's smaller than O'Driscoll but it's amazing the way he can wriggle free and get over that gain line. I think he's got a real inherent explosive power in him. He's really deceptively strong for his size. He's been so consistent."
Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll tackled by Frederic Michalak of France in last year's game ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
The lads turned their attention to our final Six Nations opponents and Trevor believes France "are not a well coached side" and that the strategy used against Italy will "expose" them in certain areas.
Liam pointed out that Italy had the same offload numbers as Ireland with just 25 per cent possession and cited that as an area to work on for Joe Schmidt over the next six days. Also explaining that France are most dangerous when "you give them the ball unintentionally", Liam warned that Ireland had nine turnovers to Italy's eight despite a convincing win.
"As bad as France have been, they have been winning games. You can't give them nine turnovers," said Liam who sees the issue as "fixable" and was encouraged by how Ireland kept shape despite upping the tempo against Italy.
Liam also heaped praise on scrum-half Eoin Reddan but would be surprised if Conor Murray does not force his way back in, while Trevor believes the emotion in Paris will be as intense as the New Zealand game in November and it is imperative for Ireland to make France tackle and suffer.
