Kyra Carusa would be forgiven for having some trepidation ahead of this week's Euro 2025 qualifiers against France and England.
Squaring up to two of the best teams in the world won't be easy - a physical and mental challenge several notches higher than what the Girls in Green encountered during the successful UEFA Nations League campaign.
But the feeling among the squad is one of excitement. Having tasted the big time at last summer's World Cup in Australia, Ireland are ravenously hungry for more. And that means having to take on the elite.
"These are the games you want to be playing in and the positions you want to be in," said Carusa, now firmly established as her country's first-choice striker.
"Though challenging and daunting to some, being at this level as a professional... if you are not wanting that, what are you doing? How are you going to get better?
"Coming off the World Cup and some of the biggest crowds we'd ever played in front of, you learn a lot really quickly. I'd say it becomes quite normal and honestly, it is weird.
"They say iron sharpens iron... so in order to become better, sharper and step up you have to play against the best. It has to be normalised with that competitiveness, the level of play, the speed of play and all of that.
"Having come off the games we played at the World Cup, coming into these games, I feel we have a much larger experience under our belts."
Ireland do have previous when it comes to upsetting fancied opponents. Their 1-1 draw with Sweden in Gothenburg during World Cup qualification was a mjor turning point for the team; the sort of gutsy, rousing resilience that accelerates positive momentum.
The Swedes are in their group again this time round, and aren't exactly thrilled by the prospect of a reunion with the Girls in Green.
"When I came into the locker room (the group draw) had been announced earlier in the morning for us, so we got the news and we chuckled," said Carusa in reference to her two Swedish San Diego Waves clubmates Hanna Lundkvist and Sofia Jakobsson.
"We were like, 'of course we are going to be in the same group together and of course we were going to be joined by France and England!'
"That game in Gothenburg is one that we still remind ourselves about as it wasn't too long ago. My teammates talk about that game as well which is funny... they look at that as like, 'this is why we didn't want to have you guys in our group'.
"They understand first hand the difficulty to play a team like us, especially now when compared with when we played them in that."
It is, of course, a different Ireland now compared to the outfit that snatched a point on Swedish soil two years ago.
Vera Pauw has departed, Eileen Gleeson is at the helm and there's a desire to embrace a more expansive approach to these clashes with the best sides.
"In terms of the team, in terms of our depth of our team, it is more competitive than it was before when we played that Sweden game," Carusa added.
"When we played games in the World Cup you could see that some of the best nations in the world, the little difference-maker would be that when they bring other players to make changes onto the pitch, the game changes for them completely and that comes with experience.
"That comes from players playing massive games like that. It is knowing how impactful that can be
"We are more competitive and our mentality is we want to be hard to beat. We are Irish. We always want people to think, 'Jesus, this is not going to be an easy game for us'."
They'll certainly get the opportunity to prove they're moving closer towards the world's best against a brilliant France team on Friday night, before England come to the Aviva Stadium.
Whether they can impose themselves on such accomplished opposition remains to be seen, but Carusa is confident they will come equipped with a plan to do damage.
"I very much look forward to seeing what ideas and what kind of creativity (the coaching staff) have for us and what they want us to implement in the game.
"Those are things we are considering and I'd imagine our coaching staff are ensuring that in moments in both of these games, these are things we want to be able to implement onto another team."
Watch France v Republic of Ireland in Euro 2025 qualifying on Friday from 7.35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on 2fm's Game On
Watch Republic of Ireland v England in Euro 2025 qualifying on Tuesday 9 April from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on 2fm's Game On
