John Devine admits that he can't help but think about becoming a world champion but the key to delivering, he says, is staying in the moment.
Richie’s Murphy’s Ireland side find themselves 80 minutes away from a first ever World Rugby U20 Championship title with an imposing France side the opposition in tomorrow’s decider (6pm Irish time) in Cape Town.
France have won four from four to reach the final, while Ireland are on a three-game winning streak after an opening-round draw against England.
"I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it," the Connacht centre said.
"But a big thing with our team is being moment-focused and even tomorrow we’ll take every play at a time and we won’t get too fixated on the end result.
"We’ll go through our process and hopefully come out the right end of it."
The Irish young guns beat France 33-31 in the Six Nations, on the way to a second Grand Slam in a row, last February in Musgrave Park.
It’s a game that they will be able to draw some inspiration from but, with a number of changes to the line-ups, will provide a different challenge.
"You can take certain things from the game but since it’s in South Africa and we don’t have a home crowd, that’s what changes it," said Devine, who played underage with Ballinasloe Rugby Club.
"Different personnel on both teams changes it. The main thing is it’s a World Cup final; that was the second game in our Six Nations campaign so you don’t know how big it was going to be so the World Cup final kind of changes things like that.
"They're unbeaten in the tournament so far so they obviously know how to win but we’ll go after them in our own way, sticking to our system.
"They obviously have certain threats as individuals but I feel we’re collectively a better team."
Meanwhile, scrum coach Aaron Dundon says that the squad has bonded incredibly well over the course of the campaign.
The run to the final, and the tragedies surrounding the deaths of Greig Oliver and two pupils from St Michael’s College, have brought the team even closer, according to Dundon.
"It's been really enjoyable this week actually after last week," said the New Zealander.
"The players have bonded even more I suppose after the last couple of weeks.
"They've brought a really good energy this week.
"I suppose making it to the final brings that energy itself and as coaches we've kind of just had to sit back and watch it evolve so it's been a credit to the players and all of the backroom staff who have kept the boys focussed on what's ahead."
Follow a live blog of Ireland v France on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app from 5.30pm on Friday
