Johnny Sexton recently admitted that, although he began the 2011 World Cup in pole position for selection, he lost focus by looking over his shoulder at Ronan O'Gara - eventually losing his place in those finals to the Corkman.
With Joey Carbery now coming up the rails - and fully fit again coming into this World Cup - it's something Sexton insists he won't repeat.
"I learned so much from that campaign," he insisted. "I needed to be more focused on myself where I had been always looking over my shoulder.
"Rather than worrying about getting my own performance right, I was half looking at him."
Former Ireland boss Eddie O'Sullivan reckons Sexton has the right approach.
"That's the way to play it," he said. "In retrospect, if I was to advise anyone in that position, it's to forget the guy coming up behind you.
"He only becomes important when you start looking over your shoulder - so don't look over your shoulder, just stay where you are, do the best you can and if he overtakes you, he overtakes you.
"Johnny doesn't have to prove anything to anyone anymore. He's done everything, he's won Heineken Cups, Grand Slams, Lions tours.
"What got him where he is is that he's do driven and that will keep him where he is until Carbery overtakes him.
"And it's good for Carbery as well that he doesn't feel any entitlement because who knows, someone might come out of the blue and put pressure on Carbery.
"That's the way it should be because that makes everyone better.
"It's only time to make a change when the guy who is there can't bring as much as the guy overtaking him - and the guy overtaking him proves he can do it."
And O'Sullivan, who is an RTE pundit for the World Cup, added: "I like to remind people when I get the chance - because I'm not always right - in November 2017 that Carbery would go to Munster and there was murder over it.
"But I felt there was no other way for him. I said he could go to Ulster, too, but there was no other way for him to challenge to become the Irish fly-half if he wasn't playing every week - and that was the only way to do it, to get out of Leinster.
"I think Joe Schmidt played a part in that, he managed that and it was without a shadow of a doubt the right thing to do.
"You can see the dividends now for Carbery himself, for Ireland and for Munster. That was a no-brainer".
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