Dan Sheehan says his confidence is at an "all-time high" after the Six Nations - and that he is relieved he didn't go chasing to become a superhero away from Leinster.
Such is Sheehan's level of satisfaction ahead of the big showdown with Connacht that he feels lucky to have been part of the Ireland pack's Twickenham torment given that lessons were learned and the men in green still won.
"I was extremely lucky to have that experience," claimed the Dubliner.
"That was probably the first experience where it was error on error on error.
"I personally probably didn't manage it well enough, whether it was my comms with the ref or just being able to put a plan in place in the moment.
"So I'm really glad it happened where we came away with the win. It was a bit of a dampener but the learnings have added a huge amount - the ability to problem solve on the go and not let things reoccur."
The 23-year-old hooker is in the spotlight again tonight having stepped up when Rónan Kelleher was injured during Ireland's February loss to France.
Sheehan stayed patient, even last year when some pundits were calling for him to move to Munster for game time in a bid to team-mate and rival Kelleher for Test starts.
Instead he signed a new Leinster deal.
Sheehan recalled: “It was just stick with Leinster, really. I knew that it would be naive to sort of go chasing other clubs or trying to become a superhero somewhere else.
"The set-up Leinster have of developing young players has proven itself over the years.
"Like Ports (Andrew Porter) and Tadhg (Furlong) last year - I know they've swapped over now, but both of them last year played the same position and I don't think there was any talk of them switching clubs.
"There's obviously talk of ‘is it better to move if you're number two'. With Rónan, we both feed off each other and we both get sufficient game time and have impact on the game.
"The way we train here, I don't think there was any point in trying to move or improve. I've been able to do everything so far that I'd wanted to."
Sheehan has proved his worth with a string of strong performances in blue and green and a Champions Cup knock-out game at the Sportsground won't faze him.
"The Six Nations added a good bit of confidence to my game," he said. I'm extremely comfortable now with what I'm doing.
"I know the areas that I'm good at and that I need to improve on. So my confidence is probably at an all-time high."
Sheehan and his team-mates have had the whip hand over Connacht but he expects the hosts to brew up a storm.
"They have the ability to pull the rabbit out of the hat," he said.
"We have to expect it will be the full-noise Connacht coming at us and make sure that we're on point.
"It's a completely new game when it comes to European rugby. It's Connacht's first experience in the last 16. There's extra seating being brought in. The whole of Galway will be buzzing for the game.
"So, it's a completely different challenge. European rugby is completely different, even if it's the same team you were playing against last week, it's always going to be a step up."
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