When Andy Farrell named his team on Wednesday for the Guinness Six Nations opener against France, the Ireland coach said he didn't expect his side to be "perfect" in Marseille, but that they had to be "ruthless".
It turns out he was working off an advance script.
Ireland's performance wasn't perfect at the Orange Velodrome - even if the 38-17 scoreline was - but the way they picked apart Les Bleus to put up a record score on the French away from home was as ruthless as it gets.
Jack Crowley's performance on his first night as Ireland's first-choice out-half epitomised it. Johnny Sexton is a tough act to follow, but the 24-year-old played his own tune on his 10th cap.
As expected, there were some errors; he saw an early kick charged down, another went out on the full, and there was an adventurous grubber in the 22 that had a bit too much mustard on it as it ran out over the dead ball line. France's second try, through Paul Gabrillagues, eventually came from a penalty Crowley conceded when he collided with Gael Fickou in the air.
But what's most impressive about the Munster out-half is his ability to play each moment without consideration for what happened before.
There was a six-point swing when his missed penalty on 23 minutes was followed by Thomas Ramos landing one for France, as a potential 13-0 lead wound up becoming 10-3, but he was nerveless with two conversions from just off the left touchline in the second half, both of which restored his side's 14-point buffer. His box-score reads six out of seven, for a personal tally of 13 points.
"He typifies exactly what we're talking about," Farrell said of Crowley after the game.
"The strength of character in regard to his goal-kicking when he missed the one in front, albeit from a longer distance, to then knock two on the trot over from the sideline showed immense character really.
"So, it's a good start for him, it’s a good start for us as a team and hopefully he’ll get better and we’ll benefit from that as well."
While the composure was impressive, the attacking intent was exciting. His clever move down the blindside of a scrum on 21 minutes almost led to Ireland's second try before Josh van der Flier was held up over the line, and his willingness to bring the ball right up to the point of contact created the gap for Tadhg Beirne to run in under the posts after half an hour. Peato Mauvaka took the bait as Crowley squared up to the defence, before tipping the ball on to his Munster teammate after the French hooker was committed.
He was willing to put his body on the line in attack, and also showed a desire for the physical work in defence, most notably when he threw himself at the 150kg frame of Posolo Tuilagi, chopping the 19-year-old down impressively in the final 10 minutes of the game.
Crucially, he looked unburdened by the weight of expectation, having inherited the Irish 10 jersey from arguably the country's greatest player, Johnny Sexton.
"There’s no doubt that a young kid playing in a position like Jack is at ’10’, with the responsibility of that, but then obviously all week, and rightly so, everyone was talking about how were we going to deal without having Johnny [Sexton] at the helm, and Jack was going to be the first one to have a shot at filling the shoes," Farrell added.
"It definitely creeps in. You’d be a liar if you said it didn’t, but he gains his strength from knowing that his teammates are prepared and there to help.
"I thought his composure at the line was great. He made some really nice decisions and some poor ones as well, and he’ll know that more than anyone else."
One win won't define his career, but having showed the world he can play true to himself in a high-stakes environment, the weight of expectation just got a bit lighter.
Watch Wales v Scotland in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday from 4pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
