Joey Carbery has shown no sign of nerves since stepping into Johnny Sexton's shoes for Ireland's big Six Nations showdown with France.
Carbery got the nod from Andy Farrell to start tomorrow after Sexton felt his hamstring in training on Wednesday.
And, after observing a confident Captain's Run at the Stade de France on the eve of the game, assistant coach John Fogarty believes that Carbery is in the right mental space as he prepares for his first Six Nations start.
“I guess the way we are training at the moment means there is lots of involvement from the entire group, so without a doubt when you are moved up to start there will always be a little bit of nerves," said Fogarty.
"He (Carbery) hasn’t shown any.
"The way we train is a huge help, that players can slot in and out throughout the week.
"He looks very ready. He’s nice and focused about what he wants to do so it is an exciting challenge for Ireland to see Joey in there.”
Sexton has travelled with the group to provide support and to lend his experience of the occasion.
For Fogarty, the squad's scrum coach, the key to fo the players to remain as calm and focused as they have been in the build-up, even with the late blow of losing their veteran captain.
Fogarty remarked: "Johnny will have a presence but as far as a gee-up... us being able to calm and clear in our minds, almost to take some of the emotion out of it, without a doubt, there's going to be emotion in people's minds.
"But the focus will be for us to be nice and calm so we can see things in front of us.
"Johnny will have a presence, I'm sure he'll be helping out what he needs to in the backline.
"There's usually a quiet few words and a focus on understanding our game plan, understanding the challenges, and trying to gain a sense of calm before we get on the bus to the stadium.
"That's sort of the theme we've tried to develop through Faz over the last two years, trying to develop that calmness of mind so we can play the game in front of us.
"Without a doubt, you're away from home, there's going to be excitement and levels of emotion.
"They're going to be there for all to see tomorrow, but the focus is on calmness."
Sexton's captaincy goes to James Ryan, who has done the job before.
"When things get tough, James grows as a person and he's shown that time and time again that he can dig deep and he leads by example a huge amount of the time on the field, and he'll be very focused in how he speaks and clear in how he speaks," Fogarty explained.
"His preparation during the week builds confidence in everyone around him and once he we get to the pitch and we need people to front up, he leads in those ways.
"And that's what I'll say about James, he's an excellent professional and he's admired by the group for those reasons."
Asked if he felt Ireland can now be tagged as underdogs given the out-half situation, Fogarty insisted that doesn't come into his thinking, or the squad's thinking ahead of the late afternoon kick-off in Paris.
"We're not thinking of where we sit in the minds of everybody else," he stated.
"We're very clear in where we're sitting at the moment in how we've developed our game, how we're playing the game.
"I'm thinking now for a second, are we underdogs? Are we favourites? It's something I haven't thought about and something we don't think about too much.
"We have played France twice over the last two years and when we came here last time out, we didn't feel as ready as we do now.
"We feel that we've taken the learnings from the games we've played in and we're in a better place.
"Win, lose or draw, we're going to take the learnings from this one and we're going to improve and get better.
"That's the mindset for us. Underdogs? it's not featuring much in our minds."
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