Joe Schmidt demands that Ireland hit the ground running to put themselves in World Cup contention.
Four years ago Ireland could afford to build up steam in the pool stages against Canada and Romania.
They then faced Italy and then France, before injuries and suspensions killed them against Argentina in the quarter-finals.
But this time it's completely different with main Pool A rivals Scotland followed, six days later, by host nation Japan before meetings with minnows Russia and Samoa.
Schmidt wants his side to beat the Scots in Yokohama tomorrow, which would guarantee them topping the pool and an eight-day turnaround to a quarter-final against New Zealand or South Africa.
That's unless Ireland suffer a shock defeat next Saturday to Japan - who kicked off the World Cup with a 30-10 victory over Russia in Tokyo last night.
"It’s just so different because we didn’t start with the same level of match – and that’s no disrespect to Canada, but they weren’t as well known to us and they weren’t in Tier One," said Schmidt.
"We’ve got a big Tier One opponent and the players know each other really well, and that closeness makes us a little bit nervous and them a little bit nervous no doubt as well.
"We probably arrived a little bit underdone last time and tried to get an upswing through the pool so there was almost a natural progression, and I felt that we got there.
"Unfortunately there was some collateral damage on the way through that made it very difficult beyond that.
"But this time we definitely have to hit the ground running, this is the equivalent of the French game last time but we’ve got it first up.
"Therefore we’ve tried to taper and periodise our upswing a little bit earlier - and hopefully there’s been a little bit of evidence that it’s starting to come and we’d love that to be the case against Scotland.
"It feels pretty nerve-wracking but there’s a degree of calm in the camp now.
"When you get close to these really big games, the players tend to take centre stage and start to lead what’s happening and when we see the players doing that it builds confidence for the management and the coaches.
"I get a pretty good feeling from the camp and it gives me a little bit of confidence but as I say, I would never be the super-confident type so we’ll see what happens on Sunday".
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