“They can sing and shout and put the Irish fans in their place by shouting louder than them. When the crowd gets behind you it literally makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“That is infectious, drives you on and gives you a boost of energy. I’m sure the stadium will be in full voice and that will spur us on.
“The fans do make a massive difference and whoever makes the first big carry or tackle will set the tone for us and them. Hopefully, that can give the crowd something to shout about.
“You can always hear the fans at Rodney Parade singing on the terraces in support of the Dragons, and I love that. Sometimes when it goes quiet they’ll come up with a great one-liner – those are the sort of things that we love to hear.”
The 54-cap Dragons back row picked up 11 stitches in his cheek at Stade de France due to a facial injury that forced him out of the game against the French after only four minutes, yet he was back in action the following weekend when he came off the bench against the Italians.
“I think I face-planted Antoine Dupont’s boot. Well, if it’s got to be anyone’s boot!” he added.
“And, ‘no’ I wasn’t trying to kiss his feet. I’d just got up and there was blood coming from my face, so I thought I must have done something pretty bad.
“When they stitched it up, they said I couldn’t go back on. A few friends and family have said it’ll be a good story to tell after I finish playing.”
It may raise a smile on the after dinner circuit in a few years time, but the story Wainwright would love to tell is how the Welsh team proved people wrong by upsetting the Irish in their first home game of the championship.
“There isn’t a lot of positivity around Welsh rugby at the moment and there’s obviously no hiding away from the fact this is a pretty low point. We are on a run of defeats and everyone goes out each weekend to try to put that right,” he said.
Aaron Wainwright during training
“We don’t go out there to lose, and the important thing for us this weekend is that we’re going to be playing in a packed-out Principality Stadium. That gives us a great chance to go out and put in a performance against one of the best teams in the world.
“That’s what we’re all aiming towards and that’s what we’ve been speaking about in training. What a good opportunity this could be to have everyone getting behind us – it will be amazing.
“It could be a real catalyst for us and that’s what you play international rugby, to play in the big pressure moments, big pressure games. I’m definitely excited about getting out there and trying to set things right.
“It’s a massive challenge as Ireland are one of the best teams in the world. They are incredibly well-drilled all the way across the park, so we’ve got to be right on our game.
“Matt Sherratt has told us he wants us to enjoy these next three days. If we go out there and express ourselves and show that we’ve enjoyed this week then I’m sure the fans will get a sense of that and really get behind us and drive us on.
“Ireland are incredibly detailed in whatever they do in line-out, attack shape, breakdown stuff – all the little things that they can do and get away with, they will. And that’s why they’re so good.
“Hopefully, we can try and nullify that and take away their detail as much as we can by being nuisances. That’s what we have to do – go out there and prove people wrong!”
