Denis Leamy hailed interim Irish coach Paul O'Connell as a "brilliant leader" as the national team prepare for a Summer Tour series against Georgia and Portugal.
With Andy Farrell assuming the role of head coach with the British & Irish Lions and 16 Irishmen part of the overall contingent, it's all change for the two upcoming Tests against Georgia in Tiblisi this Saturday, following by a date with Portugal in Lisbon seven days later.
Munster defence coach Leamy got the call to work alongside his former Ireland colleague O'Connell in preparing the side for these July assignments, with attack coach Mike Prendergast and scrum coach Cullie Tucker also helping out.
For Leamy, there was much praise for how the interim man in charge is overseeing things.
Speaking at a press conference, a day out from the squad's departure to Eastern Europe, he said: "I'm very excited to be working with Paul again; he has carved out a hugely succesful coaching career. He has given us clear guidelines in terms of what he wants from us as coaches coming in from the provinces. He challenges us and creates a good atmosphere to work in."
Being even more effusive of O'Connell's contribution, he added: "Paul is a natural leader, a brilliant leader, so his presence alone is a great starting point. He has a great knowledge of the game and his way of imparting that knowledge to the players is hugely impressive."
Even though 13 uncapped players are part of this squad, Leamy is not expecting much variation in how Ireland will approach these Tests from the way an Andy Farrell team would play.
"It's about implementing old and new into the Irish gameplan again and playing the Irish way again," to see how players do in that environment so that they can produce a big effort and big performances.
"It will be very, very similar if not the same," said the former No 8.
"So that's the plan, to play the really Irish way and to try and do it as well as we can.
"Obviously we’re missing a big chunk of the players who have gone to Australia with the Lions but it’s a great opportunity for the boys coming in to show what they can do and just build on some of the things that have (been) done to date."
Facing Georgia will be the just the challenge for a collective looking to experience the thrust of international rugby, according to Leamy.
"They're a very experienced Georgian team, a lot of them have played in World Cups. A huge amount of them play in the Top 14 so they’re well accustomed to big games, being in tough environments.
"So it’s a really good challenge for a young team and to go to Tbilisi, into a bit of a bearpit, it’s going to physical, it’s going to be hot, it’s everything we want to expose our young players to."
The Tipperary native also had positive news on Munster's Tom Ahern, who had been feeling the effects of a tight hamstring.
"Tom is good to go. He's fit and he’s ready to go," he revealed.
"Tom has progressed hugely over the last couple of years and he's put in some excellent performances for Munster. So he’s a guy we have high hopes for and absolutely, hopefully, he’ll get game time and do really well.
"He’s such a promising player, I’ve no doubt he can do that."
