Rónan Kelleher says Ireland will be grateful for an extra day's rest when they head to Edinburgh to face Scotland on Sunday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
Simon Easterby’s side made a winning start to their Guinness Six Nations title defence last Saturday, when they scored four tries in a bonus-point 27-22 win against England.
That win may have come at a cost, with Connacht pair Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen both injury doubts for the game at Murrayfield, while Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Furlong are also carrying injuries into the week, having missed the Round 1 win.
Both Ireland and Scotland will have the benefit of an eight-day turnaround from their opening games, which gives those injured players a better opportunity to return, while also affording the rest of the squads an extra day to get their bodies right after an attritional opening round.
While Ireland’s replacement hooker Dan Sheehan had an eye-catching performance off the bench at the Aviva on Saturday, Kelleher made a strong case to keep the number 2 jersey again this weekend with an impressive 50-minute showing.
The Leinster hooker broke five tackles from his nine carries and crossed the tryline only for the score to be ruled out for an infringement by Tadhg Beirne, while he was particularly active around the breakdown, with only Caelan Doris arriving at more opposition rucks.
The 27-year-old also had a perfect record at the lineout, hitting all 13 of his throws, with Sheehan also maintaining that 100% record.
It was a return to form for the Irish lineout, which had dropped to a 81% completion in the second half of 2024.
But Kelleher insists very little has changed to how the Irish setpiece prepared.
"To be honest we haven't done much different really. We've just kept to the same principles, same thing that we would have known works. We're focusing on the small little details in the lineout, the lift and maul etc.
"It was just what happened on the day. I think a few things clicked, we focused on small little details over in Portugal, but we were focusing on those details all throughout November as well.
"I suppose we did well with the ball we got and maybe those small details paid dividends today or worked out today," he added.
Sunday’s return to Murrayfield brings Kelleher and Ireland back to the scene of one of their most memorable wins of recent years. The 22-7 win at Murrayfield in March 2023 was the penultimate game in the Grand Slam journey that season.
Wins against Scotland have become pretty common this century, and Ireland have won 10 in a row against Gregor Townsend’s side, dating back to 2017.
The 2023 win stands out for the chaotic nature of the second half, where Ireland lost both Kelleher and Sheehan to injury during the game. Despite playing the final 32 minutes of the game with Cian Healy packing down at hooker and Josh van der Flier throwing into lineouts, Ireland won that period 14-0 to record a comfortable win, before going on to seal the slam six days later.
"I just remember a few people laughing, like 'this is wild'" Kelleher recalls.
"Just a next man up mentality. Church [Healy] obviously went in, did unbelievably well in the scrum, Josh did unbelievably well at the lineout throws, but there was no panic, no sense of dread or anything really.
"It was just more of the funny situation, but people were willing to step up and I thought we did well as a squad to get through that."
And Kelleher says that the belief Ireland took from that afternoon still stands to them today.
"Looking around, no one panicked, everyone was like 'right, we have a job to do,’ and it just showed not only the experience but also the quality in the squad, that Cian was able to slot in pretty seamlessly into the hooker position and obviously Josh was the same throwing-wise.
"It was a brilliant day and we were obviously delighted and it led to a big Grand Slam win the following week, so yeah, it was massive."
Watch Scotland v Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations on Sunday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
