The busy times are really coming at us now. Ireland are back in Six Nations action this weekend, there are a host of intriguing hurling and football league matches down for decision, and we’re only a few days out from Cheltenham.

Our rugby team can take another significant step towards winning the Six Nations Championship this Saturday if they beat Italy with something decent to spare. This should be a routine enough victory and set us up for Paris the following Saturday night.

While all the right language will be used by players and management in the lead-up to Saturday’s contest – cliches like ‘taking it one game at a time’ will be trotted out – we have no place winning a championship if we can’t dispose of the Azurri comfortably.

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Once that is done, the farewell for Brian O’Driscoll can begin in earnest. Probably the greatest ever player to wear the green jersey, O’Driscoll will probably be called ashore close to the end of the game so that the Aviva can rise to acclaim him.

And rise they should. The great one will have his last hurrah in Paris and it would be fitting if that is on a winning Irish team, for that is where he made his mark almost 14 years ago with those three remarkable tries.

On Saturday it wouldn’t be all surprising if his team mates took one extra look to see where he is if they are close to the try line, for there would be wonderful poignancy to the occasion if he were to score one last Lansdowne try. Of course, he will be bursting himself to do so.

Joe Schmidt will have to be careful this week because the emotion of O’Driscoll’s swansong could get in the way of the job in hand. If Italy are being beaten by 20 points after 60 minutes, then the showboating can begin and players will look to release the number 13 into space near the opposing line. While the Six Nations is hardly the appropriate place for this type of carry-on, players are human and it will happen.

Thanks to our three-point loss to England, coupled with our 23 (Wales) and 22 (Scotland) wins, our points difference is a very healthy plus 42. We will add to that on Saturday and should head into the last round of fixtures with something above a plus 60 mark. If we beat France, then they are no longer a concern and that just leaves the winners of England and Wales in Twickenham this Sunday as our main contenders.

England are currently plus 21 and could pad that out if they were to beat the Welsh handsomely at home. But the Welsh seem to be finding themselves again after the hammering we gave them, so they won’t lie down for the English, they never have. England should have the strength to win but will probably head to Italy for the last game around 30 points behind us.

That should be too much of a mountain to climb, especially when we would be adding to that should we beat France on Saturday week. There are a lot of ifs and buts in those presumptions, but we will beat Italy and we are better than France.

There has been much talk in the lead-up to this game about Johnny Sexton’s situation in Paris and the possibility of the IRFU tempting him home after just one year in France to have him ‘right’ for the World Cup. This smells of pure mischief on behalf of some journalists and is highly unlikely. It is laughable too that some of his poor decision making in the English game was put down to his having played too much rugby to date this season.

As excuses go, that’s one of the best I’ve heard. Sexton has had a good championship but had a poor enough game in Twickenham with the ball in hand. That happens. His journo support choir should get over it, and he should too for he has nothing to be ashamed of, everyone can have an average game. Even Jonny.

I suspect Sexton’s only real issue is the high standards he continually says he demands of himself and his tendency to say that out loud. He does appear to pile the pressure on himself on occasion and maybe revels a bit too much in the whole self-appraisal business.

He will probably start on Saturday, if only to send a message to Racing Metro, but shouldn’t be needed for more than hour. Sexton’s value will be in the Stade de France.

At that 60-minute mark on Saturday, Joe Schmidt will be faced with a challenge and I feel that this is the one and only area where he has not performed well as a coach. Churlish it might be to point this out after four excellent performances on the bounce, but he is slow to pick game changers, let alone introduce them from the bench.

In Twickenham, with 10 or 15 minutes to go when Ireland needed new energy and something different from the bench, he didn’t have it. That’s because he didn’t select it. Isaac Boss, Paddy Jackson and Fergus McFadden are Schmidt’s type of player, whole hearted and solid, but none could break that game wide open. Those were our only options on the bench for a backline that was sorely in need of an injection.

Simon Zebo is that player. He has been back playing for a month. He is fit, in form and as dependable as McFadden is. Zebo has international pace and that touch of class his Lions selection from last year indicates.

He should have been on the bench for the last match and there is much speculation among rugby followers as to why he wasn’t. Zebo mightn’t tow the party line, but a talent like his is almost an automatic selection in the absence of Tommy Bowe and Keith Earls.

I’d like to see Simon Zebo start on Saturday instead of Andrew Trimble, although he has done little wrong to justify demotion. But this game is about winning, scoring tries and setting the table for Saturday week and France. That means our best 15 on the field at the start, the game wrapped up early, and often.

Only when that is done can it be about Brian O’Driscoll. The great one wouldn’t expect anything less.