South Africa and New Zealand targetted Ireland's lineout at World Cup so Dan Sheehan couldn’t help but admit he was "happy" with the set-piece after victory over France.
The Leinster hooker, who scored Ireland’s fourth try, hit his man with 11 of 11 throws before replacement Rónan Kelleher came on and made it 13 from 13 in total.
Along with four lineout steals, the accurate darts laid a powerful platform for Andy Farrell’s side to work off as they opened the defence of their Guinness Six Nations title with a 38-17 victory over 14-man France in Marseille.
"Was it bad [before]?" asked Sheehan. "I didn't think it was bad.
"Our prep on it all week was pretty good. Yeah, I think everyone just knew their role really well and a few things that we talked about during the week came off
"And in fairness to Tadhg [Beirne], he called it extremely well and we had a good few different pictures that we showed them so, happy with that."
Ireland’s winning margin was a record in the fixture and victory itself was just Ireland's fourth win away to Les Bleus in 40 years.
"Yeah, it’s massive," added the 25-year-old (above).
"This game two years ago was the deciding factor in a Grand Slam. Obviously, it’s only the first game and we have some big games coming up but it’s a great start and hopefully we can kick on into Italy next week.
"I felt like we came out of the blocks pretty well. I felt that we were able to impose our game pretty well, had a good bit of control early on, before [the sending off] happened.
"Obviously it has a big impact on a game, two yellows into a red so hard to tell but I thought how we started was a good sign of how it was to go."
The RTÉ panel sang the praises of Joe McCarthy after a Six Nations debut to remember for the 22-year-old.
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