IT’S a great week to be Irish, and the English have always loved pretending to be Irish. After a gorgeously Irish Cheltenham, marred only by the thousands of English who believe that craic is a synonym for drunkenness, we have Ireland to cheer for at the rugby today.

Ireland play Wales in Cardiff and Wales are going for the grand slam. So naturally, the English will continue the week of wannabe Irishness by shouting like mad for those that go in for the wearing of the green. Partly, this is because the English have always loved the Irish when they are not actually shooting them. And partly it’s because it would be so good to see the Welsh fail.

The England-Wales rugby match is an annual polarisation of this, the most prickly of the Anglo-Celtic relationships. I have been in Cardiff for Welsh triumph, I have been in Cardiff for Welsh disaster. It is fair to say that neither occasion has seen the Welsh at their most likeable.

But between the gloating and the whingeing falls the triumph. And there is no doubt about it, Wales have been the team to watch in the RBS Six Nations Championship. Don’t bother to point out that this has been a very disappointing tournament, with a poor France side and a worse England one. This tournament won’t be remembered for its high standards. It will be remembered, if the home side win today, as the year that Wales seized their moment.

That’s true, even if it sounds like English sourness to Welsh ears. But rather more interesting is the question of what the Welsh will do next. What is the point of this potential grand slam? Is it good because it is a glittering prize, well fought for, a station on the way to something genuinely great? Or is it good because it sticks it up the bloody English?

On that question hangs the future of Welsh rugby. Is the point of the victory strictly local? Or is it, in fact, global? Does victory provide Wales with a chance to change the world order in rugby? Is it a chance to make the world’s top five into a top six? That is what is so intriguing about this match. Do Wales have it in them to join England, France and the three leading southern-hemisphere nations as the elite, as the inevitable providers of all four semi-finalists in every World Cup? Or is it just a brief firework display from a nation that will soon lurch back into its traditional position as losing quarter-finalists?

These big questions are not entirely a matter for the players and the management. They are also the concern of the entire nation. It is, after all, so often the case that Welsh nationalism is little more than Welsh provincialism. It would be so much more interesting — in terms of sport, in terms of Anglo-Welsh relations — if today’s match were a starting point rather than the finishing post.

In pure rugby terms there are signs that this may actually be the case. England’s post-World Cup performances have been marked by the obstructionism of the club set-up, the overplaying of players and the consequent injury blight. That is not the case with the Welsh. In these pages last week, Sir Clive Woodward, England’s World Cup-winning former head coach, praised the club-Wales vibe he found when paying an extended visit in his capacity as head coach of the British Isles for the summer. Wales have something that England had and that England have lost.

The Welsh have not been too proud or too perverse to learn from England. In terms of thoroughness and depth of preparation, Wales have stepped forward where England have stepped back. This involves a raised expectation, of individuals and of teams. Two individuals in particular have stepped forward, providing a contrast and chemistry of the kind that often marks very good teams.

There is a leader, Michael Owen. He was never thought of as a demonstrative person, but the Welsh, unconventionally, decided to interview for the position of captain. Rather than respond off the cuff, Owen came out with a fully-baked statement of intent worked out on his laptop. That thoroughness, that thoughtfulness, that commitment is now an essential part of the side. That, and Gavin Henson, a look-at-me sportsman, recognisable even in silhouette, who gleefully plays the role of talisman. It was his nerve at the finish that allowed Wales to beat England.

There are indications, then, that this Wales side might be something more than one that got the better of England in a bad year. The next step is holding the nerve when it is all there to be won and lost.

But if Wales do indeed pull it off, the whole thing comes down to the way the decent prize is received: by the Wales team, by the Wales management, by the Welsh nation. A new team at the high table of world rugby — we should all welcome that, for rugby is a sport with too shallow a pool of talent. We must not be small-minded. But do the Welsh really have the ambition for greatness? They, too, must not be small-minded.

The lowdown

Style Short, hairy fellows, keen on leeks, singing and using the letter “L”

High point Forging a rugby team that was so great they were known only by their forenames

Low point Being left off a map of Europe by EU statisticians last year

Catch it on BBC One, 3.30pm, today