One of the enduring images from Ireland's 13-8 win against South Africa a couple of weeks ago was the sight of James Lowe picking Eben Etzebeth up off the ground in the tackle early in the second half.
The 6ft 8in Springboks lock may have thought his was luck in when he took a pass down a narrow blindside and found the Irish winger as the main resistance between himself and the tryline, but Lowe had other ideas, getting in low under the second row's legs to pick him up, before the backup arrived to force a turnover.
For a man whose defence was so often questioned in the past, it's been a while since that element of Lowe's game was exposed.
"It's funny how the world works, and it probably proves that if you work on something long enough, the fruits of the labour will come through," Lowe said about his improvements in defence.
"I pretty much fell into a position where I had to make a tackle and that was the end product. Josh [van der Flier] had the brunt of him there."
And while both Lowe and Ireland were impeccable in defence last time out, holding the Springboks to just eight points, the Ireland wing believes they'll need to step it up even more against a Scottish side who like to play fast and wide, with Finn Russell pulling the strings of their attack.
"A ten who likes to play wide, a 12 and 13 who take the ball to the line, then two wingers who are exceptional, and a full-back who plays on an axis with Finn [Russell]. So it's going to be another challenge but something we're definitely looking forward to," he added.
Robbie Henshaw was the only member of the 33-man squad who didn't take a full part in this morning's session at the Stade de France.
The centre was ruled out of this weekend's game due to a hamstring injury, and while head coach Andy Farrell didn't sound optimistic of his chances of a quick return when speaking yesterday, Henshaw did some jogging and rehab work with the Irish medical staff behind the posts.
"He's good, as you saw, he's out running so he’ll be assessed as we go along and we’ll see after the weekend how he pitches up next week," scrum coach John Fogarty said about Henshaw.
"It's been a good week again, some good prep and I think everyone is unbelievably excited to get here tomorrow to perform in front of our support and play this game."
The group were in a relaxed mood after this morning's captain's run at the Stade.
The bedbug outbreak in Paris hasn't made its way into the Irish camp, with Fogarty (below) explaining that the "natural" fumigation powers of some of the front row forwards should prove too powerful for the pests should they dare get near the camp, while Lowe joked that Mack Hansen may have been the cause of the issue in France.
Relaxed and complacent are two very different words, and there doesn't seem to be any fear that Ireland will be taking their eyes off the threats posed by Scotland, who proved they could cause Andy Farrell's side real issues when they met in the Six Nations earlier in the year.
Russell may be the conductor of the Scottish attack, but with Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham on the wings they have a pair of lethal finishers out wide if they can get to the edge of the Irish defence.
Graham scored four tries in their last outing against Romania, and Lowe says he's in for a tough day opposite the Edinburgh man.
"Obviously Darcy Graham is an exceptional player, and fortunately I haven't actually had to man-mark him. I’ve never played opposite him in an international.
"Very, very good feet, he’s similar to the two South African boys we played last week. Catch and pass and his ability to create something out of nothing, probably challenged by the two boys last week.
"He’s definitely a handful but you want to challenge yourself against the best.
"And then you look at the behemoth [van der Merwe] on the other end. He’s a few inches taller than me and he’s definitely got a bit more muscle than me as well.
"He’s a serious threat ball in hand, but I mean we’re going to try our best to put them under as much pressure as we can, and hopefully Finn Russell doesn’t find them too often in too much space."
It's eight games and six years since Scotland last beat Ireland, dating back as far as the start of the 2017 Six Nations, and while Lowe says their recent record against Gregor Townsend's side does give them a degree of assurance, it's not going to alter their focus on Saturday night.
"Obviously, it does give us confidence in what we've done over the last three to four years in terms of what we've built. We know what works but like I said earlier, even in wins there's still things to learn.
"Invincible? I wouldn't go anywhere near that word. Complacency is something that can't creep into this group as well and it doesn't."
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