Just a week after a record-breaking humiliation at the hands of England in Twickenham - Joe Schmidt's men stare down the barrel of world number one ranked Wales.
Ireland face the potentially soul-crushing challenge of turning around a 42-point hammering to England when they face Wales - who beat England just last week themselves.
And that's ignoring Wales' 25-7 rout of a struggling Ireland in this year's Six Nations, a win which sealed a Grand Slam for Warren Gatland's men.
Here's everything you need to know ahead of the big game:
Where is it?
The game will be played at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff
When is it?
2:30 PM on Saturday August 31.
Is it on TV?
Channel 4 will show the game live, coverage begins at 2 pm.
You can also follow the Irish Mirror's live blog of the action.
Quotes corner
Joe Schmidt on Ireland after their defeat to England: "I said to the players after the England game, ‘Look, I’ve been coaching professionally for 17 years, I’ve had these days’.
“I think there’s two or three of them. So they are very, very rare and we have turned them around each time.
"I do firmly believe that we can."
"We played our first game against Scarlets and I think we copped 50-odd points.
"That was very, very tough and we bounced back and won the next week, and won again the week after that.
"I'm not saying we can get back and win against a Wales side which are probably a little bit further down the road than we are. "But I'm really confident we'll see an improvement.
"We've just got to make sure that improvement is sufficient for us to be really competitive, and then even more competitive the following week - and then as close to the peak as we can be against Scotland in four weeks' time."
Team news
Teams will appear here when they're announced.
Betting odds
Wales 4/11
Draw 20/1
Ireland 23/10
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