Joe Schmidt claims some of the Ireland side that suffered last weekend's Twickenham thrashing had their minds on Japan, not on England.
And Schmidt today warned his squad that they can't afford a similar mindset against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, despite the fact that Ireland's management will submit a final 31-man squad for the World Cup on Monday.
“It's funny because last weekend should have been the most important game that we were thinking of," began Schmidt.
"And, if I'm to be frank, some of those players were not thinking about that game last weekend, they were thinking about making sure they were 'on the plane'.
"And you can't afford be looking after yourself and you can't afford to be behind the game like we were last week.
"So it's the most important game for some time - but each week should be the most important one. I know that's a cliche that we have continually repeated over the last six-and-and-a-half years that I have been involved, but it has allowed us to get ahead in games.
"Probably three-quarters of the games we have played we have won and that has been down to a focus on a week to week commitment to what is immediately in front of us and not worry about Scotland in the World Cup."
Schmidt, who has made 11 changes to his side for the Cardiff clash, admits his players were handed a real character test last week given the heavy training load they had worked.
"I do think we took our eye off the ball. We were not quite up for the game as we should have been and we were a bit heavy-legged.
"I accept the responsibility for that, but sometimes that is a bit of a character test - can you get over that and still deliver?
"Because there's always the chance with a five or six-day turnaround and the manner in we start the World Cup that we could be a bit heavy-legged, because built into that is travel to Shizuoka and then further on down to Kobe.
"So you've got a travel day built in on the back of a five- and a six-day turnaround.
"Part of what we are trying to do this year back to Christmas is try to put ourselves in scenarios where we're under pressure and seeing how well we react - and we didn't react nearly well enough last week".
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