Top of the world rankings, having knocked off the southern hemisphere big three in the last seven months, but this year's Six Nations will be about far more than fine-tuning Ireland's game, according to Caelan Doris.
Andy Farrell's side begin the championship as the favourites to win a first title since 2018, and start their campaign away to Wales under the Principality Stadium roof.
But if there's any cockiness in the Ireland camp, they only have to look at their record in Wales to come back down to earth.
Since Ronan O'Gara's Grand Slam winning drop goal in 2009, Ireland have only recorded one Six Nations win at the Principality in their last six attempts.
And with Warren Gatland back in charge, and the Welsh starting line-up loaded with 937 caps, Doris knows Ireland will be in real trouble if they allow the hosts build some early confidence.
"We've spoken quite a bit about having a fast start and hopefully not letting their crowd get in too much behind them," the number 8 said.
"Possession is big for them and territory, so an early, accurate start is going to be important for us."
Having missed Ireland's 2021 Six Nations due to concussion, this will be Doris's first visit to the Cardiff with Ireland, and he's looking forward to experiencing one of the game's great stadiums in full voice.
"I do enjoy it, yeah.
"Ideally there'll be cheers for us, but either way... I remember Johnny [Sexton] saying before that he got inspired from bums on seats, regardless of who they were cheering for. So, I think that’s quite a good message going into this one.
"Going into the Stade de France last year we'd mentioned it, but probably hadn’t fully understood the level of the noise from the warm-up right the whole way through. So, that was a learning off the back of that game that we’ve brought into this one and there’s been more talk about it and more awareness of what we’re going into."
That game against France was one of just two Ireland lost during 2022, the only other coming in their first Test in New Zealand, before they went on to come back and win the series 2-1.
They come into this Six Nations on a five game winning run, and while they have been playing close to top for more than a year now, Doris maintains they still have several gears left to reach.
"Its evolving our game in terms of adding layers, little tweaks here and there, but then also getting better at doing the basics more consistently.
"And that's probably the big one really, just being more consistent with all the fundamentals of the game I think is probably where there is most growth."
Whether Ireland win a championship or a wooden spoon in this year's Six Nations, the result will largely forgotten if they can make history at the World Cup later this year.
But for Doris, the next seven weeks will dictate a lot of what will come in France later this year.
"I mean we do need to keep evolving, and keep improving for the World Cup. But the Six Nations is huge in itself as well.
"So I think both goals are aligned in that if we do well in this it's going to leave us in good stead for the World Cup as well.
"There's a lot of excitement and being over here adds to that. I think it’s been good prep so far. Everyone is buzzing around the place, excited for the Six Nations to start, excited for the growth that still needs to come. We still need to evolve as we go but I think everyone is in a good place mentally."
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