Ireland assistant Andrew Goodman believes there is a "different edge" around camp, as Ireland look to complete the Triple Crown, and potentially win a Six Nations title.
A win on Saturday afternoon against Scotland would see Ireland win the Triple Crown for the fourth time in five years, while they would also need France to slip up against England to go and win the title.
Opponents Scotland are in a similar position, on the hunt for their first Triple Crown in 36 years, and still in contention for a first Six Nations title since 1999.
Goodman says that "cup final" feeling is unusual for a Six Nations week.
"It's class, isn't it?" the Ireland attack coach said of this week's final round of games, with three sides still in contention to lift the trophy.
"You can just feel the edge around the place. It's a nice feeling.
"It's where we all want to be. I suppose the players and the management group want to be part of these big games that have got real importance to them.
"As I said, there's lots of excitement, a little bit of nerves, as you can imagine, and some good edge around the place."
While France had been expected to stroll to the title and a Grand Slam for the second year in a row, that was blown apart by Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday (below) as they produced a sensational 50-40 win to bring the championship right down to the final day.
There was another seismic result to follow later that afternoon in Rome, as Italy defeated England for the very first time, marking one of the most dramatic days in Six Nations history.
"What a great advertisement for the game. And I think it has to be one of the best Six Nations for a long time, with the competition week to week, so it's been great to be part of.
"It's amazing buzz. It's great to be part of a last week when there's plenty on the line. As you can imagine, there was some quite loud roaring for Scotland on Saturday afternoon.
"So, yeah, it was great to sit back after getting the five points, still knowing that we didn't get the performance we were chasing down, but it creates a good edge for the week.
"And we know there's a Triple Crown within our control, and then who knows what's going to happen the way this competition's been going," the New Zealander added.
Ireland came through last Friday’s win against Wales unscathed, with no new injury worries ahead of Saturday’s finale against Scotland at Aviva Stadium.
Aside from Jeremy Loughman and James Lowe – who had already been ruled out due to injury, head coach Andy Farrell is expected to revert back to his side that thrashed England 42-21 in Round 3 for this weekend, with Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier and Dan Sheehan all likely to come into the side.
And having been guilty of some sloppy game management during the most recent win against Wales, Goodman (above) believes they will need to hit those same heights from Twickenham if they’re to finish the campaign with four wins.
"We want to try and get back to that level, but we want to use that as a benchmark that we can grow from.
"And if you look back at the Wales performance, we weren't quite as sharp with some of our work off the ball.
"That was something that was really impressive against England. We were working off the ball hard, which meant we were seeing pitches early, communicating things really well, and then off the back you execute really well. So we'll be driving that this week."
Ireland have won their last 11 meetings with the Scots dating back to 2017, but they are likely to get their toughest test since then this weekend, after Gregor Townsend’s side destroyed France in Edinburgh last weekend.
While the French scored four late tries to add some respectability to the scoreboard, the game had been over with 15 minutes to play after Scotland scored their seventh try to go 44-14 in front.
And Goodman, who worked with several of this Scottish side on the British and Irish Lions tour last summer, knows just how dangerous their backline can be if they good supply from their forwards.
"It was good to watch. As a rugby fan, I enjoyed watching the game, 50-40. What a score! Plenty going on.
"I thought they'd done a great job in terms of their attacking the ball to space and expressing themselves. I'm sure they'll come here with lots of belief and confidence around what they've been able to do over the last three weeks after a tough start like we had as well.
I'd say listening to what they're saying as a group, their belief is as high as it's ever been, according to everything that's coming out of the group.
"So it should be, as I said, the way they've performed over the last three weeks, it's been good rugby. So I'm sure it'll be up there with one of the better teams that have travelled over to these shores, yeah," he added.
Follow a live blog on Ireland v Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday from 2.10pm on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
