Cian Healy says he hasn't been green-eyed watching Ireland's Rugby World Cup rivals name their squads for the tournament in recent days.
While Andy Farrell isn't due to reveal his 33-man squad until the end of August, the likes of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and England have all shown their hands this week, more than a month out from the opening pool games.
Steve Borthwick specifically referenced "selection anxiety" as the reason for naming his squad so early, with the England coach keen to put his players at ease in the weeks leading up to the tournament.
But 35-year-old Healy says he's perfectly comfortable waiting a little longer to find out if he'll be travelling to France next month.
"Each to their own I suppose," he said.
"I'd say some lads in here would love for it to be named already and some lads are happy top wait it out.
"I suppose the continued competition is a really good thing and players are continually pushing on, but across the board we have that, whether it's a final squad or a wider squad.
"I don't think it makes too much of a difference to be honest."
The Leinster loosehead has played down the significance of Roy Keane's surprise visit to the Irish squad yesterday.
👋 Great to have a couple of familiar faces at today's session! #TeamOfUs pic.twitter.com/nO6SStCigY
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) August 9, 2023
Heads were turned on Wednesday when pictures emerged of the former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland captain - as well as singer Niall Horan and golfer Padraig Harrington - at the Irish squad's warm-weather training camp in Portugal.
But Healy says it was a chance meeting rather than an official visit.
"I have no idea what he was doing there to be honest.
"He wasn't in camp, he was at the side of the pitch watching training. I don’t know, I didn’t get to chat to him, I was training.
"Some of the lads that had already done their part of the session would have said hello or whatever, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a scheduled thing. He was just on holidays here and showed up for a look."
The Ireland squad will be given the weekend off after they wrap up their camp in Portugal, before regathering at Carton House on Sunday night ahead of next week's second warm-up game with England.
While the Irish squad have been in pre-season training since mid-June, their World Cup preparations have been dotted with rest periods and weeks away from camp where they've been tasked with training by themselves.
And Healy (below), who is preparing for his fourth World Cup, believes they've struck an ideal balance in their preparations.
"It's a great buzz, a really good camp to be in," he added. "A lot of fun, a lot of time together on and off the pitch, especially over here we’ve got nice time in the afternoon to spend a bit of time with the group, and break off to spend a bit of time with families as well.
"So it’s really good. It’s a really positive camp and we’re working hard. We’re working very hard when we’re on and we’re recovering very hard when we’re off so it’s a good mix.
"What we haven’t done this time round is the kind of mindless running up and down the pitch. Now, we did it today as a top-up but that was the first time we’ve done it this pre-season.
"All of our fitness has been through rugby and in the sessions the skills are very sharp. Players are on and going well so it’s a nice change-up, way of doing it for sure.
"This has been managed really well in the sense that no one feels overloaded by time away yet, everyone's had the opportunity to get home, go away, go on holidays, get married, and everything in the middle.
"I think there's a high level of trust there that we can just go off and do our work and have that week out of camp. The standard that we've had of players fitness coming back from holidays, strength coming back from holidays has been really high so there's that level of trust there, that people know what they need to do to be in the shape to play this type of rugby."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch live coverage of Ireland's Rugby World Cup warm-up games v England (19 August) and Samoa (26 August) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio, or follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.
