Jack Conan believes Ireland's win over France will put all talk of a World Cup hangover to bed.
Andy Farrell’s men opened up the defence of their Guinness Six Nations crown with a 38-17 victory over Les Bleus on Friday night.
Billed as the 'World Cup final that never happened’, Ireland demonstrated that they had dealt better with the disappointment of losing their quarter-final than France had to losing theirs.
Leinster number eight Conan was asked if the victory was important in putting the ‘hangover’ talk to bed.
"Yeah, and I think that’s exactly what it did," he said as Ireland prepare for Sunday's clash with Italy at the Aviva Stadium.
"We had already closed the chapter on the World Cup but for our next performance to be a good one and get a win was huge.
"There was no doubt about it, everyone had so much belief that we were going to do the job in Marseille.
"I don’t think there was a hangover from the World Cup but it’s definitely important that you are not backing up losses even though there’s months in between it.
"It was a good start to the campaign. There was so much energy and freshness to the squad from the World Cup.
"The lads bounced into camp, those first few days and into Portugal and were so eager to get back to winning ways and to show how good we can be and that was a snippet of how good we can be at the weekend."
Conan (above) was unavailable for most of the World Cup as he recovered from a foot injury but came on as a replacement against Scotland and New Zealand at the tournament.
He also came off the bench against France with each cameo adding to his starting claims.
"I was unfortunate with knocks and stuff over the World Cup that I didn’t get as much game time as I would have liked," he said when asked if players still knock on the coach’s door looking for more game time.
"Now it’s about taking opportunities when they come and even now, and I've been about a few years at this stage, you want to have those conversations because you want to get better.
"You never want to just take what you are good at and not worry about what you need to improve on.
"Whether it’s about having conversations with Faz [Andy Farrell] or Paulie [O’Connell] or Catty [Mike Catt], Si [Easterby] or Fogs [John Fogarty]...it’s important to be pushing in the right direction."
Against France, the 31-year-old back row came on just after Ireland scored their fourth try, alongside Cian Healy, Ryan Baird, Finlay Bealham and Rónan Kelleher as part of Ireland’s first ever 6:2 bench split.
"It's great, especially when a load of you come on at the same time," said the Lions number 8.
"There is such an energy and a buzz.
"Everyone is dying to get on and prove themselves and add their value when they can.
"I love being part of a 6:2, especially if you are only covering one position – you're not thinking, 'right, if Pete (O'Mahony) comes off here, am I going on to do 6 or if Caelan [Doris] moves to 7 or if I'm going on at 8 or whatever.'
"I knew I was only doing one role at the weekend, so you can put all your focus into that and make sure that you're across all your stuff from early on in the week. It definitely helps.
"It's great, I thought the lads off the bench did great, whether it be scrum, lineout or around the pitch. It's always good to be involved in a 6:2."
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