Iain Henderson admits he wants to "stamp" indiscipline out of his game after being forced to sit out the final two weeks of the Six Nations.
The Ulster skipper was red carded against the Ospreys in the province's final PRO14 game before the Ireland players went into camp to prepare for the encounters with Italy and France.
Henderson was subsequently slapped with a three-week ban and can return in Friday's opening Autumn Nations Cup clash with Wales.
"If anything it was probably clumsy," said Henderson, recalling the incident late in the game when he charged into a ruck and made contact with Dan Evans.
"We joked about it afterwards, had it been maybe 50 minutes earlier in the game I might have got a better body shape. A bit of fatigue kicked in there.
"It was stupid on my behalf - especially trying to close out a game like that, to be giving anything stupid away. So that’s probably a frustration for me.
“It’s not ideal. Some people were complaining about the ban but it is what it is.
"I put my hands up and say it shouldn’t have happened and again it’s discipline, something I know that I’ve had to work on in my game a few times.
"So I’ll be looking to stamp that out of my game.”
Having watched on from afar as the Six Nations played out, Henderson insists that Ireland camp remains an "excited" camp despite the disappointment of Paris but that the players do recognise vulnerabilities remain.
"Confidence is high," said the second row.
"I still think we’re very close to the beginning of our journey. I think a lot of guys do take confidence from that, and take confidence from how we’ve been prepping, what we’re doing in training.
"The excitement we have going into games and training is massive".
