Tadhg Furlong says he's expecting to face a very different Wales when Ireland travel to Cardiff for the opening game of their Guinness Six Nations campaign on Saturday.
Ireland were comfortable 29-7 winners when the sides met on the opening day of last year's championship in Dublin, and the season didn't get much better for the Welsh after that, as they lost nine out of their 12 games in the calendar year, including defeats to both Italy and Georgia.
That form led to the sacking of head coach Wayne Pivac in November, and the return of Warren Gatland, the man whom Pivac took over from in 2020.
The New Zealander led Wales to four Six Nations titles, three of which were Gland Slams, and two World Cup semi-final appearances during his first term in charge between 2008 and 2019.
And Furlong, who has worked under Gatland on both the 2017 and 2021 British and Irish Lions tours, says he's one of the best coaches around.
"I loved him because he always picked me!" the Ireland prop joked.
And while Furlong says Gatland's coaching methods on a Lions tour might be slightly different due to the short-term nature of the tour, he says the former Ireland boss commands a lot of respect.
"The game, the week, being a rugby player is different, it's totally different. I mean, you go on the Lions tour and it's a different way. It's a different way of going about it.
"The meetings are very short, keeping lads fresh, a lot more contact in training than we would do in Ireland. Double-days a lot, he works you very hard, so it's different.
"But yeah, he is incredibly clued in. I suppose he was a hooker, so he takes a good interest in the scrums, but a lot of it is just on tactics, getting the motion of it right, framing the week, he does it very, very well.
"I know the Welsh lads have huge amount of respect for him and he really gets the most out of those Welsh players. They really buy in.
"I've never seen a Welsh training session. I'm comparing this to Ireland or to Leinster, not comparing to other teams because I don't know. They [Wales] would have that element of a spike during the week. Now, you're not taking full 15 on 15 in-house games or anything like that.
"They do the spikes of live contact during the week and maybe they split, I know the English clubs do it as well, they might have a units session in the morning, and then a team session in the evening. In Leinster and Ireland, we tend to wrap it up on one session, lace up once."
Ireland flew to Portugal on Thursday, and will remain at their Algarve base until they depart for Cardiff.
Andy Farrell's squad will have some extra company over the course of the tournament, with the Six Nations teams set to be the subject of a Netflix fly on the wall style documentary series.
Having experienced similar on his two Lions tours, Furlong says he doesn't expect the presence of the cameras to create any issues in camp.
"We've done it on Lions tours, with cameras being around. The only danger with cameras is that you still want lads to be themselves and not have the cameras affect what goes on.
However, while many rugby fans are hoping to get a glimpse of the fine details that go into match preparation, Furlong says there has to be a limit on the amount of intellectual property they give up.
"I'm not sure how much rugby IP I'd like to leak from the group, for normal reasons. I don't know the full ins and outs of it. I couldn't imagine it would be full open-door, I don't see how that would work."
The format has proven to be popular for Netflix, with their Formula 1 series 'Drive to Survive', as well as the recent tennis series 'Breaking Point'.
The Ireland tighthead says his understanding is that the rugby series will see certain players in the squads featured, but added that he isn't one of those who have volunteered themselves to be in front of camera.
"I don't know, I think there are a few feature players in it, they were looking for a few players to put their hand up. I don't know who's done it.
"I haven't watched the tennis one but I've watched Drive to Survive.
"You never know either, how much is it [insightful] actually? You don't see them talking about engineering, you don't see them talking about little pieces they put on their cars, and why they did it this way.
"I'm saying that in Drive to Survive, what do any of us know about F1?"
Follow every game of the Guinness Six Nations on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app, or listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
Watch live coverage of Ireland v France (11 February), Italy v Ireland (25 February) and Scotland v Ireland (12 March) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
