Springtime in Paris has rarely been a happy setting for Irish rugby, but the poor record in the French capital is not a topic Joe Schmidt's men discuss.
Rory Best addressed the media in Stade de France this morning ahead of tomorrow's NatWest Six Nations opener against Jacques Brunel's team.
The issue of the captain's attendance at a criminal trial in Belfast earlier this week was the first to be raised but Best said he had no comment to make.
Unusually, Schmidt’s men will run out at the Saint Denis venue tomorrow with the expectation of victory weighing on their shoulders.
Much like 12 months ago when Scotland scuttled Irish hopes on opening day, a hobbled together France team have an opportunity to test if Ireland can handle the favourites tag.
While Best hopes that lessons were learned he refused to put that defeat down to cockiness.
"I don’t feel that 12 months ago was over-confidence," he told RTÉ Sport. "We just were a little bit under-prepared in the two weeks leading up to it.
"We just weren’t quite where we needed to be and where we had been in the autumn, 12 months ago.
"That is probably one of the big lessons: the autumn form. While it’s good that you can have that sort of confidence as a team that you can play well, by and large, come the start of the game tomorrow it’s irrelevant.
"The favourites tag isn’t something that we’ve talked about or worry about.
"We give the opposition the respect that they deserve and we treat each opposition as they come and we look hard and make sure we study them.
"Our record here isn’t great over some 40 years now and that’s because it’s a hard place to come to and that’s what we’ve stressed.
"We’ve stressed that even the championship win four years ago came down to the wire.
"Like [what] you need to win championships, there’s a small slice of luck at the very end, that we got the ball back. You make your own luck.
"It is going to take a big, big performance. No matter what stage you are at in your career you always like to think you can learn lessons."
Ireland will have three Six Nations debutants on board, with James Ryan and Jacob Stockdale, both 21, and Bundee Aki, 27, all earning their first taste of European action in green.
"The big thing is to play the match and not the occasion, stick to the stuff they know well, said the Ulster hooker who will earn his 107th cap tomorrow.
"We're not so much caught up with expectations and pressure.
"The pressure we put on ourselves in training and how to play, our standards are very high.
"No matter how much you've prepared yourself, even if you've been here before, for any player to step out into that stadium and the noise generated, I wouldn't say it's a shock, but it's a hugely motivating factor.
"You grow up watching the Six Nations games and you hear the noise on the TV as a fan, but stepping into the arena as a player, it is totally different.
"And how you handle that, I suppose that does separate those who can step up and those who cannot.
"There are probably going to be times when there are small setbacks, that's natural, but then it's about how people respond.
"When times get tough we have to get tighter as a group too."
Follow our live blog of France v Ireland (4.45pm kick-off) on RTÉ Online and the RTÉ News Now App, or listen to commentary from Michael Corcoran and Donal Lenihan on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
