Hugo Keenan doesn't expect the pain of Leinster's Champions Cup and URC failures to seep into Ireland's World Cup preparations later this year.
The Ireland squad are on a down-week after completing the first two-week block of their Rugby World Cup training camp, with just over four weeks to go until they face Italy in their opening warm-up game on 5 August at the Aviva Stadium.
With half of the 42-player squad coming from Leinster, there were concerns that the province's end of season form would sow some doubt into the Irish camp, after they were beaten for the second year in a row by La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final in May.
The province ended the season trophyless again, losing to eventual champions Munster in the the semi-final of the BKT United Rugby Championship, with Keenan admitting the Munster players in the Irish group have naturally bounced back to camp "on a high".
And while he says the focus is on Ireland rather than Leinster for the next few months, he believes he and some of his team-mates will be using their disappointment as fuel.
"It's tough, because three weeks or four weeks of holidays isn't going to wipe the slate clean for you," Keenan said.
"It's obviously a lot less of a touchy subject than it was a couple of minutes after the final whistle, but we're still hugely disappointed.
"It was gutting, and something I won't get over for a while, but it's something you have to use as a positive to motivate yourself more, to make yourself better and the team-mates around you better, and take from losing a final to push on."
The 27-year-old pointed to last summer's Test series win against the All Blacks as an example, when Leinster had again been beaten by La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final only a few weeks previous.
"It's the same last year when we lost, we used it as a motivator in New Zealand for that series, used it throughout the season with Leinster and had a great campaign until the last couple of weeks," he said.
"You just have to embrace it and take the learnings from it.
"People aren't dwelling on it, you can’t come in moody still and disappointed about that. The Munster lads are on a high. Everybody has to have a pep in their step, people aren’t short on motivation," he added.
While Keenan has been almost ever-present in the Irish starting line-up since making his Test debut in 2020, the 30-cap full-back is in unfamiliar territory in preparing for a first World Cup.
One major difference to normal Irish camps is the level of competition on a daily basis, with the current training squad of 42 to be trimmed down to 33 before they depart for the tournament in France.
Considering he's started 30 of Ireland's last 32 games, it would seem that Keenan is among the locked-in selections, not just for the final squad, but for the starting team as well.
But the Blackrock man says there's more than enough quality around him at training to prevent him from becoming complacent.
He said: "I think there's huge competition in the back three. I know the lads might not have played a huge amount at the end of the season but between Jimmy [O'Brien], Mack [Hansen], Jacob [Stockdale], there's a lot of lads who can slot in easily. Even you've seen Jack Crowley and Ciarán Frawley both pop in there as well.
"So there's always competition, and we're trying to help each other grow. Like, it's great having Calvin Nash in and to learn from him, because he's probably someone I haven't played a huge amount with or he hasn't been in camp a huge amount.
"So you're constantly trying to learn from these guys and improve each other as a collective, because that's the ultimate aim. We're not winning it as an individual, it's a team thing, and we're doing it for the country really."
Despite so many players jostling for position in Andy Farrell's plans, Keenan says it's important they keep the balance between competition and collaboration.
"You just have to use it as healthy competition to drive you on to improve yourself to get better.
"There will be opportunities in the warm-up games to put up your hands. So I think it is going to be about your performances in those and what you have done in the season just gone.
"But it will also be about how good of a team-mate you are. Because if you are spending eight weeks over there together you have got to buy into the group and to be there to be helping others.
"It is going to take a huge squad effort. I know there is 33 on the plane but through the nature of injuries you are probably looking at 40, potentially even more which is what we have in at the moment.
"I think people are only using the competition as a positive."
