With Johnny Sexton not among the Irish players who will step on to the Murrayfield turf for today's opening game of the Six Nations against Scotland, the focus is on Conor Murray to be Ireland's half-back general.
In an interview with Keith Wood for the BBC, which will be broadcast before today's game, Murray spoke about being a reluctant leader on the pitch and making a conscious effort to enjoy the rugby experience a little bit more.
The scrum-half also addressed the passing of Anthony Foley and the tribute which the Irish team paid to the Munster coach in the moments before kick-off in Ireland's historic win against the All Blacks in Chicago.
The week felt a bit weird. From coming from Munster and then Axel passing and then to jump into another camp and kind of have that in your head, it felt a little bit weird.
From the beginning of the game, from the national anthems to the Haka with the eight. Just the emotion that built up in that game. You realise that when you're standing in the figure-of-eight, the crowd realised what it was. There was a roar when the Haka was going on. It just felt like a really powerful thing to do. The images are spine-tingling.
Murray calls that November 5th game the best performance he's had while wearing an Irish jersey.
To put in a performance like that was the best sporting moment of my life. Sometimes you try and be a bit humble about it but that was my best performance in a green shirt.
For more than a year now, Murray has been in the conversation when people talk about who is the best scrum-half in rugby. To the forefront of his mind when he hears this is a little bit of advice which he received from Anthony Foley.
Axel did say these things to me. He said, 'You're never as good as they say you are or as bad as they say you are. You've got to find yourself somewhere in the middle.'
To be mentioned like that is great. It means you're doing something right. It means the hard work you're doing is being seen by people on the outside.
Maybe when I'm finished I can look back and say, 'That was a great day. For a good few months of my career I was in good form.' Right now, it's week on week and trying to stay at that level.
