Andy Farrell looked out from his seat on top of the rugby world and broke into a smile.
Across Dublin the excitement surrounding Irish rugby’s date with destiny was nearing fever pitch, more talked about even than Cheltenham..
Farrell is boss of the Ireland team 80 minutes from Grand Slam glory. Against an England team on its knees, in Johnny Sexton’s last ever Six Nations appearance and on St Patrick's Day weekend, failure to deliver a first ever Dublin Slam is unthinkable.
Yet if he is weighed down by the expectation of his adopted nation he does not let on.
"It's not any other game, we’d be stupid to think that,” Farrell said. “But to me, desperation is an illness. You want to stay away from that.
"You can't be accurate if you're desperate. Being calm enough to be yourself, being controlled enough to be accurate when it matters, is a temperament we're all chasing.”
Down the road England were in a flap after their flight was delayed. Steve Borthwick made four changes from the French test his side so badly failed but wasn’t around to talk about them.
One of those sees the return of Owen Farrell to the starting line-up, but dad Andy appeared more concerned that Tommy, the England captain’s eldest, would be rooting for grandad’s team tomorrow.
“I’ve told him to bring the [Ireland] shirt I gave him,” he said. “We'll be trying to poach him into our captain's run.”
So at ease with himself is he you could forget this English sporting legend is about to put it all on the line against the nation who sacked him after the 2015 World Cup.
Don’t be fooled, cautioned former Ireland star Shane Horgan.
“In these weeks against England he’s more pumped up than anybody else,” he said. “What helps I think is that he left England with a bit of a grudge. It didn’t work out well.
“I think he felt a bit hard done by and he was probably right to feel hard done by. So it feels like there’s always an element of revenge. I think that’s landed well with the Irish public.”
There is no doubt Farrell was burned by the fallout from 2015. So too his assistant Mike Catt, Stuart Lancaster at Leinster and Graham Rowntree down at Munster.
But the only indication he gave was when asked if he felt any urge to head back to England for future challenge.
"No, why would we? We love it here,” he said firmly. “When you make a decision, you commit, and that's it. We're loving life here - and the rugby's pretty good as well."
Having asked his family to up sticks Farrell is intent on squeezing every last ounce out of the move. A Slam this weekend is just for starters.
But he keeps all that under wraps, talking process rather than pots.
“People think we're chasing a trophy,” he said. “We're not, we're chasing being the best version of ourselves when it matters most.
"This weekend, we don't want to be second best. We don't want to be No.2 in anything.
“But it's not embracing that, it's embracing being the best of ourselves. That’s what matters.”
England: Steward; Watson, Slade, Tuilagi, Arundell; Farrell (capt), Van Poortvliet; Genge, George, Sinckler, Itoje, Ribbans, Ludlam, Willis, Dombrandt
Replacements: Walker, M Vunipola, Cole, Isiekwe, B Curry, Mitchell, Smith, Marchant
Ireland: Keenan; Hansen, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe; Sexton (capt), Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong; Baird, Ryan; O'Mahony, van der Flier, Doris.
Replacements: Herring, Healy, O'Toole, Treadwell, Conan, Murray, R Byrne, O'Brien.
