Having been given a few days off the rest the body and soul after last week's energy-sapping win against South Africa, it's a sign of pretty good squad morale that so many of the Ireland team reported back to camp in Tours ahead of schedule.
When the squad broke up on Sunday and went their separate ways, some linked up with family or got away from the World Cup bubble to quieter parts of France, and Stuart McCloskey was even given permission to fly back to Ireland for a short stint on compassionate leave.
Dave Kilcoyne was one of "eight or nine" from the squad who booked an Air BnB in Paris for a couple of days of nice restaurants, good bars and time to unwind.
But such was the high from the 13-8 win against the Springboks, and the desire to make sure their World Cup didn't peak in September, two days was more than enough time to switch off.
"We had a couple of meals together, but even by the Tuesday, we were going to stay down because we had the days off, but lads just wanted to get back down and so we came back, myself and Pete [O'Mahony] got the later train on the Tuesday back to Tours," Kilcoyne says.
At a rough count, this squad have been together in hotels for 12 of the last 15 weeks since meeting up at the start of their pre-season training in June.
Yet, there's no sign of cabin fever.
"It's such a great environment down here," the loosehead (above) adds.
"We have everything we need in the hotel, and full credit to the backroom staff, the set up they have here, our training environment’s unreal, but back there [at the hotel] the work Vinny Hammond has put into our team room, the Ryder Cup is on at the moment and we have TrackMans [golf simulator], every kind of device you could want, so I think lads were just happy to chill out there.
"When there’s great camaraderie in the squad you love being around it."
In recent years the morale in the Irish camp has been a common topic of discussion with the players. The pitch at the Aviva Stadium after big Irish wins can look like a playground with so many players bringing their kids out for a runaround, while a huge focus has also been placed on recognising the individual milestones of players, whether it's Keith Earls' 100th cap back in August, or Kilcoyne reaching his 50th during this year's Six Nations.
It all leads to a happy camp, and the loosehead prop says that style of man-management is a huge part of Andy Farrell's success.
"I'm not going to be saying about other coaching environments but this is definitely the best Ireland environment I’ve ever been involved in since I’ve been playing, 100%.
"I'm loving it over here, you read people writing about the incredible environment Faz [Farrell] has created for the players.
"And I don't say it for the sake of saying it, but I think his emotional intelligence is through the roof.
"You look at that South Africa game, such a big occasion physically and mentally fatiguing and to have the foresight to give the lads two days' break, he probably knew how mentally and physically fatiguing that game was going to be for the whole country probably.
"Lads went away and spent a bit of down time and I could even see it yesterday, lads were itching to get back in, bouncing and it's all eyes on Scotland now."
Kilcoyne plays his own part in keeping morale up as part of the fines committee in the squad, with he, Jack Conan and James Ryan the appointed 'Sheriffs' of the group, responsible for a suited Tadhg Beirne wearing his 'Number Ones' to a press conference a couple of weeks ago, and one would assume he's had an influence in the many moustaches we've seen in the squad since the start of the tournament.
"That's only a small part of it," he laughs.
"It’s just making sure everyone contributes and is really enjoying their time in here. All the players contribute to that. We’re a long time together so you’ve got to blend all the personalities together.
"There’s a social committee, there’s a games committee, there’s a fining committee, so it’s just getting the balance of everything right and keeping the energy high every day is part of it."
He threw himself into the final five minutes of Ireland's win against South Africa last Saturday, coming on for Andrew Porter late in the game, and he helped secure the vital scrum penalty that allowed Jack Crowley put Ireland five points ahead.
Farrell has shown faith in the experienced prop, who went unused by Munster in their URC final win against the Stormers back in May, and Kilcoyne started his Irish pre-season well when he scored a try - just his second for Ireland - in their warm-up win against Italy in August.
A hamstring injury picked up the following week on their camp in Portugal stalled his progress, but after returning with a 40-minute shift in Ireland's second Pool B game against Tonga, the veteran is feeling back to his best.
"I'm in as good a shape as I've ever been in.
"I'm feeling super-fit, everyone's frothing at the mouth to be involved.
"When you get on, you can't be desperate. You have to be accurate, that's one of the sayings Faz has.
"You want to make an impact, but you've got to be calm upstairs, pick your moments and execute them right."
As attention turns towards the final pool game against Scotland in seven days, repairing a sloppy lineout will be the key area to address for this Irish pack.
And Kilcoyne says their win against the Springboks will be a distant memory by the time they return to the Stade de France on Saturday.
"That game is parked, we've a couple of massive learnings from it and we definitely won't be falling in love with ourselves.
"Paulie [O'Connell] had a few tips for us this morning in areas we were deficient in and we were out there this morning making sure we had them right for Scotland.
"In a competition like this you've got to keep learning with every game and you've got to keep getting better. Next week poses a massive challenge to us again so we’ve got to prepare as best we can for that.
"There’s a couple of fix-up areas just around...I’m not going to say it here, he won’t want me saying it, but there’s certain areas we needed to improve, and he gave us a blueprint this morning to fix that. We were out there this morning making sure that’s right going into the Scotland game.
"That’s an area we felt we could be caught and we don’t want to so it’s trying to get ahead of the game. You can’t afford to get complacent in a competition like this, a win as good as South Africa again was, there is an amount of learnings and areas for growth."
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