Iain Henderson believes he and his team-mates will be able to park any performance anxiety against Samoa tomorrow, in what will be Ireland's final game before the Rugby World Cup squad is confirmed.
Andy Farrell will publicly announce his 33-man squad for the tournament on Sunday afternoon at 4.30pm, having brought forward the confirmation by a day.
Barring late injuries, it looks like Farrell has already settled on his final squad, with Keith Earls and Stuart McCloskey's inclusions in the starting team for the game with Samoa in Bayonne a positive indicator of their chances.
And Henderson, who captains Ireland tomorrow night, says he expects they'll be told the news on Saturday night after the game.
"I would imagine it would be after," the second row said.
"No he hasn't [told us], I'd say it would pretty rogue of him if he told us before the game.
"He hasn't mentioned it, like I mentioned there, we're tightknit and everyone's looking after each other and ensuring whoever is left out will feel as little left out as possible."
The 31-year-old looks almost guaranteed to be included for what would be his third World Cup, but for the nine members of this weekend's 23 who earned their first caps in the last four years, this is unfamiliar territory.
With just two weeks to the tournament starting, the reality is clear that any injury or suspension could have massive consequences on their chances of being involved at the tournament, but Henderson expects the players to deal with those nerves accordingly.
The Ulster lock said: "Close to half the squad haven't been in this position before but you can't keep control of things that happen in games in terms of the injury side of things, so what the players are focusing on is how they're going to put their best foot forward for Faz [Farrell] to get a good glimpse of them.
"He knows each one of us pretty intimately at this stage and I feel that the final step that the players can take is to actually go out and show it again in the Test match this weekend.
"That anxiety is obviously stressful enough for players, but at the same time nothing that players aren't used to in terms of stress in the professional rugby environment.
"I think there is a type of anxiety there but the players are well used to being put in sticky situations, selections for cup finals, selections for tours, selections for Six Nations games.
"Obviously, this one carries a slightly different weight but we're a really tight-knit group, the guys who are feeling probably the worst about it are probably the best supported.
"We understand how we're all getting on and that's something that the guys have done a really good job of around that collective, and I feel that the guys really do look out for each other and there's a genuine care for how each other is feeling."
A win on Saturday would be a record 13th in a row for Ireland in all competitions, breaking the previous record set in 2018.
They will also head into the World Cup as the number one ranked team unless New Zealand beat South Africa by more than 15 points in tonight's game at Twickenhem.
And Henderson (above) says there's no complacency setting in as the tournament approaches.
"If we bring the best version of ourselves, as Faz talks about, like we have done over the past few seasons to certain games, we know that everything's achievable," he said.
"And the games that we haven't performed as well as we could have, quite often we find it's ourselves, that we get in our own way.
"So look, we're looking forward to hopefully performing to the best of our ability and ensuring that whatever the opposition, we'll be pushing to get as far as possible.
"I've been involved in a lot of teams at club level and international level, when you beat someone it doesn't necessarily mean that next time you play them you're going to beat them again.
"But for a lot of those guys who have come through, the likes of Hugo Keenan and Caelan Doris, a huge chunk of that younger cohort that have been around for the last three, four years, it's been the norm for them to be pushing these top teams as far as they can and it's unbelievable to see the way they carry themselves into those training weeks and into those games.
"Off the back of that, it's incredibly impressive for us slightly older players to see them going like that and they are huge drivers for us as well.
"But I think it is massively promising that we have been able to turn over those teams," he added.
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