He's not the first Ireland player to hint that things are very different to the last regime and Tadhg Beirne has hailed Andy Farrell’s management as the squad gear up the for World Cup "feeling much better" than four years ago.
Asked for input about how to make the 12-week run-in, the wider squad were able to feed back what they felt worked and what didn’t in previous camps.
Off-weeks have been factored into the training programme, which began in mid-June, and there has been a more "rugby-oriented" approach to the build-up, said Iain Henderson.
Beirne was a relative newcomer into Joe Schmidt’s Six Nations-winning squad prior to the World Cup in Japan, first capped in June 2018 and winning eight caps before the opener against Scotland in Yokohama.
While Ireland dismissed the Scots with minimum fuss on that day, a shock loss to Japan and a big quarter-final defeat to New Zealand in the quarter-final meant it was another case of 'same old, same old’.
And as the Munster lock prepares to fly to France tomorrow, he believes the team are in a better place.
"With every loss you take a lot of learnings," he said.
"That whole World Cup was probably a bit disappointing from our end in terms of we had higher expectations of ourselves to go further in the competition but unfortunately our performances didn’t match that.
"As individuals we probably look at our own preparation and as a squad we looked at our preparations to see where we could improve and credit to all the staff in the Irish set-up.
"They have completely re-jigged and made pre-season a lot different to what it was four years ago and we feel like we are in a really good place and really excited to get over there and to get going because we’re feeling much better than we did four years ago going into the World Cup.
"[Andy Farrell has been] brilliant, you can see by the way we are playing.
"His knowledge of the game is incredible, the way he’s coaching us has been enjoyable.
"He creates a really good environment for us to work in and be ourselves. I couldn’t speak more highly of him. He’s a brilliant coach and a great man."
Ireland are on a record 13-Test winning run – a stretch that includes victories over New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and France in a Six Nations Grand Slam – and Beirne says it’s important to take belief from their performances.
"We take a lot of confidence from that," the 31-year-old, a Barretstown ambassador, told Kfm.
"Winning a Grand Slam is no easy feat. We take massive confidence from that, and the last three games as well, we’re creating a habit of winning and that’s what we are trying to do.
"We’ve huge momentum from all these wins in a row and we’ll use that going into the World Cup that will stand to us."
Beirne, capped 41 times for Ireland and twice for the Lions, also spoke about Leinster prop Cian Healy, who missed out on a fourth World Cup appearance after injuring his calf in the warm-up win over Samoa at the weekend.
"It’s gutting," said the former Scarlets forward, a two-time URC winner.
"You see someone who’s worked so hard in the preseason and the game just before the World Cup and something like that happens. I’m absolutely devastated for Cian.
"He’s an incredibly strong character. He was still upbeat and really supportive of us.
"With the squad announcement and knowing that he wasn’t going to be included, he was still very supportive.
"Hopefully it won’t be a long period he’s out for. We’re really devastated that’s what happened at the very last hurdle but I suppose that is part and parcel of this sport and the reality is there’ll probably be a couple of more players along the way that might pick up injuries.
"That’s just what happens and you have to deal with it.
"That’s what we’ve done as a squad, we’ve prepared a lot of players and Faz has had more than 40 players in so there’s a lot of players ready to step up if anyone does get injured in the next couple of weeks."
Ireland's first game is against Romania in Bordeaux on 9 September.
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