Nichola Fryday insists Ireland are not travelling in vain hope of a Six Nations result against France - despite the weight of history being against them.
The last time the women in green played Les Bleues in Toulouse was in 2018, when they lost 24-0.
Even at their best, Ireland have never won in France in the championship in nine attempts - and haven't scored more than 10 points in seven of those contests.
The French have only lost one of their last 21 home games in the tournament while Ireland have lost five of their last seven on the road.
Add into the mix that this is an Ireland team in the early stages of transition coming off an opening home loss to Wales against fully professional opponents and the task looks like a mission impossible tomorrow.
“Every team has that belief in them," said new skipper Fryday. "You don’t go out thinking you are going to lose a match, that is the way you are driven as athletes.
"You want to win matches - you want to stand up to the bigger teams in Europe as the perceived underdog.
"If we can get what we can bring to the table right tomorrow, and really impose ourselves physically on them as well, it will be a tight game.
“I said from the start this Six Nations will be one of the closest in comparison to previous years as the quality across all six teams is really high.
"So, you would like to think you will see these shock wins come to fruition. If we go out and play the game we want to play, it will be a good day for us.”
The question is, how do Ireland convince themselves that such a scenario is possible?
The Offaly-born second row, who plays for Exeter Chiefs, reasoned: “Look, they are athletes and we are athletes. That is the way you have to look at it.
"They’re human at the end of the day - they’re not superior humans. Yes, they’re extremely good rugby players and an extremely good team but at the end of the day they are humans.
"They are not bigger and better. You have to look at it in that sense. Yeah, you mightn’t be the tallest and you mightn’t be the fastest but you still think that when you go out on the pitch, you can play the game that you play.
“So that is the way we look at it.
"You have to respect them they're one of the best teams in the world. At the same time, you can't have that fear of them.
"You have to go out and out and put your body on the line against a team like France, and stand up to them because if you let their status affect you in any way you'll be playing in your shell, and that's not what we want.
"We want girls to stand up to them and take them on physically. With teams like England and France that's what you have to do to make it a good contest."
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