Apart from the build-up to a Triple Crown shot cranking up today, there is some excitement in Ireland camp with Cheltenham getting underway.
Johnny Sexton admits he's not one for a flutter and anyway, his focus is elsewhere this week.
"Yeah, there's a good few lads and there are tip sheets up on the walls and Wille Bennett, our masseur, is leading the charge," he smiled.
"Obviously, it's a big week in that regard for the lads, they love it. I think most Irish people do, so they enjoy it.
"But I don't (bet) myself, I'm not good with the horses so I stay away from it."
Sexton's sights are on Scotland and Ireland's shot at winning a Triple Crown on home soil, and for the first time since beating the Scots some 18 years ago.
If Cian Healy doesn't start at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, Sexton will be the only survivor in the line-up from the side that squandered a big Triple Crown chance on home soil in 2010.
Ireland were hosting the final round clash with the Scots at Croke Park that year and the Scots, who needed a victory to avoid the wooden spoon, achieved just that against the favourites.
"Yeah, the scar is still with me," admitted Sexton. "That's exactly the lesson we are trying to get across to the lads.
"They (Scotland) had nothing to play for that day, we had a Triple Crown on the line and they came and did a job, they had nothing to lose and they played brilliant rugby and yeah, it was a bad day. To have a packed out Croke Park and we got nothing out of the game."
Paul O'Connell also played that day and Sexton says he will be an important voice this week.
"The benefit of having experience is we've got someone like that to explain to the lads we need to get our preparation spot on," said the 36-year-old. "And we've got very good coaches who focus in on the process and make sure we our job right.
"I'm not sure too many of the lads will remember 2010, but I definitely will."
Asked what went wrong that day, Sexton recalled: "We probably didn't nail our preparation, even the night before the game I remember a couple of things happening that were a bit off and yeah...we didn't get it right.
"The things we normally did the night before a game, we veered away from that, we did try to do something new. That's in hindsight, if we'd gone and played brilliantly we'd have said we should do that before every game. It wasn't the overriding factor.
"The overriding factor was Scotland played better on the day and we weren't at the level we should have been.
"The most important thing is if you come away from the game at least if you've given your best performance, if you've lost you just hold your hands up and say, 'fair play to Scotland, they beat us'.
"That's what we have to focus on this week, is getting our best performance out there and if we lose, we lose - but we hope it won't be the case.
“We definitely won’t be underestimating them. We know some of the big results that they’ve had over the last couple of years away from home.
"I suppose they hadn’t a good record away from home and then in the last couple of years they’ve beaten France, they’ve beaten England and Wales in Parc Y Scarlets.
“They’ve had some big scalps away from home and they’re a team to be reckoned with.
"I know they’ve no championship to play for but that’s when they can be at their most dangerous because they’ve got nothing to lose. They want to finish as high up the table as possible.
“But also any time you play a game, whether it’s a November international, a summer international, a Six Nations game, that doesn’t have something riding on it, it’s (still) very special.
"You’re still playing for your country, you’re still representing a lot, and we’re preparing for their best performance and they’ve got some outstanding individuals.”
Sexton added: "I remember talking to you guys 12 months ago or longer, 14 months ago probably, when things weren't going great from a results point of view.
"But we knew we were sticking in there - our confidence levels were the same as they are now, we're confident in what we are doing and where we are going.
"Winning silverware won't make it better or worse but it might validate it a bit. But I'll still think we are on the right path, we're not really thinking like that.
"It's a great opportunity for us and we need to keep building, it's important we need to keep improving every game that we play. We showed some great things against England, we hope that we are a lot better this week."
Ireland claimed a record victory at Twickenham but struggled until the 71st minute against England's 14 men.
“We’ve taken a lot out of the game.," Sexton insisted. "I think we got a lot of things right. We were sloppy in some areas which we’ve looked at.
"You learn a lot in showing what we showed, which was a lot of character to stay in the fight, and stay in the moment, and make sure we were able to bounce back from a lot of setbacks and a lot of things that weren’t going our way and still be able to recover.
"So we learned a lot that if we can get out of that situation it will stand to us in the future as well.
“But yeah, there’s lots of learnings on the other side of it. We need to be more accurate, we need to be better disciplined. They were the main things, really.”
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