Ten wins in a row usually catches people's attention. When nine of those wins are all against teams ranked in the top 10 in the world and feature three against the top five sides in the world then people really start to take notice.
Such is the culture that Joe Schmidt has created in the Irish camp though, they are wholly unmoved and unaware of all the fuss that their performance is creating.
Jared Payne admits he was surprised to hear how highly Ireland were being rated, but texts from friends in his native New Zealand have made it clear that their performances have very definitely been noticed.
Ireland's run has matched England's dominant run of results in 2002 and 2003 that preceded their World Cup victory. With a favourable draw, hopes are high that Ireland can go further than they ever have before. And with Joe Schmidt keeping feet firmly on the ground, it took messages from the other side of the world for Payne to realise the extent of the buzz surrounding the team.
I wasn’t aware of it until I got texts from a few mates. If we’re standing out and they’re noticing us, that’s brilliant.
That's it. None of the cocky proclamations that now haunt Ireland's memories of the World Cup, especially back in 2007.
You get the sense that while the rest of the rugby world may expect big things of Ireland, this squad are happy to lay low and see where the journey takes us.
[The Telegraph]
