TOM Shanklin has a dual aim this week -- to keep his place in the Welsh team and to test himself against Brian O'Driscoll.

There have been calls for at least one change in the midfield trio of Stephen Jones, Mark Taylor and Shanklin because they are all similar players.

But Shanklin wants to retain his place though he is now in the more unaccustomed position of inside centre, and he wants that O'Driscoll challenge.

"He's world class, he's made a name not just for Ireland but also the British Lions, he's done everything," said Shanklin.

"I'd like to play against him for the experience.

"We've got to come out firing against them like we did against England and test them early on. We've got to hit them hard as they come at us.

"It was very disappointing against Scotland after we stepped up a gear against England.

We lost the Scotland game in the first half, but we've got to move on from that.

"We're nearly there, we're not playing for 80 minutes but we need to do that against Ireland to stand a chance of winning."

Shanklin, who could be joined at Saracens by more Welsh players, including one from Newport, is optimistic about Wales' future.

"It would be good to get a win, we'd like to perform ahead of the World Cup," he said.

"It'll come soon, we're coming together. When it does happen we'll be there for a while."

Team-mate Rhys Williams has no problems about his likely switch from the wing to his club position of full back because of the injury to Kevin Morgan.

"The back three are regarded as full backs now, so there's not too much change. My preferred position is full back, but we're given free rein," he said.

He admits he was at fault with the final Scotland try at Murrayfield when he failed to ground a bouncing ball and Chris Paterson nipped in to score.

"I missed the ball and I knew it would be a try," he confessed. "But it wouldn't happen 99 times out of 100 and I've got to forget about it, it's gone now.

"We can't afford to give an international side the sort of start we gave Scotland. We just didn't impose ourselves, we didn't turn up in the first half."

Williams says the current uncertainty in the game will have no effect against Ireland. "A lot of pople have come up to me to ask what I'm going to do, but you can't afford to think about that," he said.

"Swansea was a shock to everyone and I feel for them, but we've got a job to do on Saturday and we've got to get on with it."

Meanwhile Ireland have made three changes to their side to face Wales.

Two of the changes from the side which started against France are in the forwards with second row Gary Longwell being replaced by Leo Cullen after failing a fitness test on his injured hamstring.

Victor Costello is forced to miss out because of a calf strain and makes way for Munster's Alan Quinlan in the back row.

Eric Miller moves onto the bench to replace Quinlan while the uncapped Donncha O'Callaghan is drafted in as cover at lock.

The unenforced change sees London Irish winger Justin Bishop come in on the right in place of John Kelly, who must settle for a place on the bench.

Girvan Dempsey has failed to recover from the groin injury which kept him out of the victories over Italy and France and so Leicester's Geordan Murphy continues at full-back.

Ulster's in-form fly-half David Humphreys keeps his place at number 10 despite the challenge of Ronan O'Gara who warms the bench for the second match in a row.

His Munster team-mate Rob Henderson loses his place among the replacements with the demotion of Kelly, who can also provide cover at centre.

Ireland: G Murphy (Leicester); J Bishop (London Irish), B O'Driscoll (Leinster) captain, K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); D Humphreys (Ulster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), S Byrne (Leinster), J Hayes (Munster), L Cullen (Leinster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), A Quinlan (Munster), K Gleeson (Leinster), A Foley (Munster).