Mack Hansen cautions that Ireland can't get carried away with talk of winning a Grand Slam.
The Six Nations championship's ultimate prize has been claimed on three occasions only by Ireland - in 1948, 2009 and 2018.
After Saturday's victory in Rome, Andy Farrell's side are now just two steps away from making history themselves, a achievement that would burnish their position as the world's number one ranked team.
Scotland and England are the remaining obstacles to be cleared and Hansen stresses that while Grand Slam discussion has not been banned from Ireland camp, it is more about walking the walking at this stage than talking the talk.
"I think we do talk about it," he said.
"It’s hard to think about it too much because we do have to talk it (with our performances) week by week.
"We can’t be thinking about England now, as if we’ve already beaten Scotland. It’s a really good Scotland team.
"We are going to have to look over Scotland next week and then go from there.
"Of course there’s a chance to win a Grand Slam from there and it’s going to be in the back of a few people’s minds here and there.
"But it’s still a thing you have to take week to week."
Had Ireland not got off to a slow start against France last year then they could have been Grand Slam winners.
That loss in Paris was the only blot on their report card and while France marched on to win the championship, there was some consolation in claiming silverware.
"Even though we didn’t win the Six Nations, Triple Crowns don’t come along that often," Hansen said.
"We’ve had a similar sort of thinking about this Grand Slam.
"The Triple Crown was something that meant a lot to us."
Ireland struggled to put Italy away but Hansen is not worried about any fall off in performance.
"If you look at the last time we played Italy, they weren't the team they are now," he assessed.
"They were down to 12, I think, for the whole game at the Aviva so that’s a bit of a tough one to take much out of.
"If you look at the team they’ve been in the last year, they’ve beaten some top opposition, Wales and Australia especially.
"Any away win is something to hold your head up about.
"There is plenty to work on, we know that, but we won’t take anything away from Italy, they're a good team."
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