A 21-point bonus-point win away to France is about as good as it gets to start a Six Nations campaign, but Jack Conan has made it clear that Ireland aren't getting sucked into talk of back-to-back Grand Slam titles just yet.
A week is a long time in rugby. This time seven days ago we were wondering how long the shadow of Ireland's World Cup quarter-final exit would hang over the side. The 38-17 thumping of France at Stade Velodrome came as a pleasant surprise.
Just a few days on from the opening-round win, Ireland are Grand Slam champions in waiting according to some pundits, even with four games still to play, including a trip to Twickenham in early March.
The back-to-back Grand Slam talk can go on all around them, but it hasn't penetrated the four walls of the IRFU training centre.
They spent three months insisting they weren't as bad as their early World Cup exit would suggest and now they insist their record win away to France isn't a true reflection on the gap between the sides.
Ireland were by far the better team over the 80 minutes in Marseille, but as Conan points out, they came up against a French side that were unusually sluggish.
"They [France] didn't attack particularly well and they didn't challenge us a whole lot, if we're really honest with ourselves," the Ireland number 8 [below] said.
On Against the Head on Monday night, Donal Lenihan suggested it had been Ireland's most complete performance since the third Test win in New Zealand in 2022, a comparison Conan was reticent to make.
"I think moments of it were that good, I don't know... it's very difficult to compare games because of different oppositions, different types of attack and D and stuff like that.
"But that performance on Friday night was a brilliant stepping stone. We had already closed the book on the World Cup but it was great to just not back up a loss with another loss, to wipe the slate clean and now to build on it for the next few weeks to be exactly where we want to be."
It's all part of keeping an even keel. Don't get carried away by the good days, and don't let the bad ones bog you down.
That mentality applies to the 80 minutes just as it does to the full week. At times in Marseille last week it looked like the knees were wobbling, first when Damian Penaud burst through for a France try to cut Ireland's lead to seven just before half time, and then when Paul Gabrillagues crossed the line on 52 minutes.
On each occasion, Ireland held their nerve. They grabbed the first try of the second half through Calvin Nash to restore their 14-point advantage, before Dan Sheehan's score cancelled out the Gabrillagues try in the final quarter.
"I think a lot of it is down to the work that's done with [performance coach] Gary Keegan and as a collective," Conan added.
"Some lads were probably much further down their journey with that when it was implemented here however many years back, and some lads probably still have a lot of growth to do in that area, but it's one of those things you're searching for perfection with but it's impossible to do, so you can only try to get better.
"It's probably one of these things we were really good at last weekend, some things didn't go our ways, some decisions didn't go our way, we had a lot of moments where it could have been easy to get a bit rattled.
"Start of the second half, we go in with a good points lead but then conceded a few penalties, they notch up a few points, so it would have been easy to go in on ourselves but I think pretty much everyone's ability to be next moment focused and be calm and get back to the moment is something which has been vastly improved upon over the last few years. It's something we're constantly trying to improve on."
With nine days rest between these games, there's no excuse for complacency, particularly how Italy's attack troubled them last season.
When the side met in Rome last season, the hosts hit them for two tries in the opening half, while it took a Mack Hansen try 10 minutes from time to eventually put the game to bed.
"I think they started really quick, played with great width, and I think we were just caught a little bit within ourselves," Conan says of that game in Rome.
"I think collectively we just weren't on the money at the start of the game, luckily we were able to get back to the moment and just be focused on the next job and we got there in the end.
"But they're a quality side. They really are. You see that again, some of the tries they scored against England at the weekend, they're more than capable of pulling off a few scalps and I think you have the feeling that it's coming, so there's no easy games and we're under no illusions that this is going to be tough.
"I know it was a massive win [against France] but Italy pose a completely different attacking picture and they will play from anywhere and take any opportunity, so it's going to be a massive defensive challenge for us."
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