Iain Henderson joked with Jack Conan in the changing room on Saturday about the possibility of coming off the bench early on at Twickenham.
With 82 seconds on the clock, the Ulster skipper was called for as a replacement for James Ryan.
"In the last Six Nations it happened against Wales too, so in my head I was almost thinking the odds of happening again must be pretty slim," said Henderson.
"Seventy eight minutes later it was a different story."
Henderson found the going tough. It has been a season filled with disruption for the big second row, between injury and getting Covid during the Six Nations.
“Just a few frustrating things from the start of the season until the last few weeks, be it Covid or whatever else," he said.
"They (the lungs) were OK. The Doc came on at about 60 or 65 minutes and asked, ‘How are you hanging in there?’ and I said, ‘I’m happy to go on’.
"Whether you’re fully fit or not. the last 10 or 15 minutes are always going to be tough and you’re going to be in that dark place.
“Thankfully a lot of the lads were adding massive energy around the pitch in terms of defence and attack and that definitely helps to keep you going."
Ireland coughed up 15 penalties in total. Six were from scrum issues that Andy Farrell hopes to have addressed this week, but Henderson in particular was guilty of coughing up penalties in the loose.
"Obviously myself especially, there were a few really stupid ones in there," he acknowledged.
"I was getting a bit excited and carried away trying to force things to happen rather than sticking to our game, doing what we do, sticking to our game plan, what we’ve shown we can do throughout this campaign.
"In other aspects of the game we did that too and gave England a few ins.
"When a team goes a man down, their backs go against the wall, it definitely galvanises you.
"For us, if you think back to games we’ve played, South Africa away (2016), we go a man down with a red card early enough, and we go on and win it - the wins you get when you’re a man down are two-fold, and it raises everyone's spirits.
"I think that was something we had to be wary of with England, but we stuck to our game plan and got back on track with what we had to do.
"It was pleasing to see that when they got it to 15-all, we could continue to plug away."
At least the championship could end on a high for him.
With Ryan absent and Ryan Baird injured, Henderson is odds-on to partner Tadhg Beirne in the second row as Ireland go for the Triple Crown against Scotland on Saturday.
If Ireland win and England also win in Paris, the men in green would also claim the Six Nations title.
“In some ways it’s been an exciting but frustrating campaign for me," Henderson said.
"A start would be massive. I’d be delighted to get back in, especially in front of a home crowd.
"It would be unbelievable to get an opportunity against a really good Scotland side and to potentially do something special with the lads.
"It's been an incredibly frustrating season. The chance of being able to lift silverware with any team, be it club or especially country, is absolutely enormous.
"I'm actually not sure if any guys in this squad have lifted silverware internationally at home. That would be unbelievably massive.
"I think the excitement that that has brought us leading into this week has been huge. It's a massive driver for us, but we've got to make sure that we set that excitement aside to ensure that we can concentrate on our game.
"The guys who have been involved for a number of years know how difficult it is to come across some form of silverware at international level.
"So look, we can focus on the Triple Crown and hope that what we do during the week covers that off, and then obviously whatever happens after that will either be an added bonus, hopefully England can do the job."
He also spares a thought for Ryan, who has returned to Leinster after his latest concussion issue.
"Yeah, it's definitely frustrating, Big Cheese wouldn't take something like that lightly either," said Henderson.
"It definitely will be frustrating for him. But he's probably pretty confident that one thing he does have on his side is a really good medical team that is going to look after him and make the right decisions.
"And not only the medical team, I have, and I'm sure Cheese has, full faith in the coaching set-up, that they understand what the correct decisions are to be made around that and I'm certain that that won't be held against him.
"So he knows that he has the full support of the coaches, the medical staff and the players, too.
"The players are very much behind him in ensuring that when he does get to come back, that he's had the recommended rest and recovery time and that when he does get to come back into it, he has the full backing of everyone.
"Obviously it's a highly spoken about area at the minute, but as I said, Cheese has, and I think all the players have, full confidence in what our medical staff are doing."
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