Rob Kearney believes captain Rory Best is the”glue” that holds Ireland together however a farewell for him and head coach Joe Schmidt is not essential against Wales on Saturday.
Best, 37, will play his final home match against Wales and will retire from baseball following the World Cup in Japan.
Schmidt will also resign following the championship after six years at the helm, in which he has controlled three Six Nations titles.
But, Kearney played down the importance of a.
“Obviously it’s important but it’s not at the forefront of our thoughts,” he said.
“Performance is huge for us this week and even in case you scale back the performance, it’s putting it into cubes; the first 10 seconds, the next 10 minutes, etc.
“We actually should ensure we are firing in any way cylinders for that very first week, [of this tournament] so that this weekend is a huge step for us.
“And then you get to enjoy and feel proud of giving Joe and Rory the significant send-off.”
Best, who played his final match for Ulster at May, will get his cap – causing him the third-highest capped player in Ireland’s history – supporting Ronan O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll.
“It’s huge, isn’t it? And sometimes I think it gets a little helpless,” Kearney stated on Greatest’s leadership before Ireland’s final World Cup warm-up game.
“A number of those momentous victories we have had as a team have been below Rory. He is a pioneer that is brilliant, he’s the glue that brings the team.
“Again, he’s a man who is training well and I’m sure he is quite excited to get out there and also show he’s still exceptionally effective at producing big performancesat his old age”
Ireland returned to winning ways last weekend when they have been comprehensively beaten by England 57-15 at Twickenham, edging out Wales 22-17 in Cardiff on Saturday.
Six months later prior to enjoying hosts Japan schmidt’s unwanted face Scotland in their very first World Cup group stage match on September 22.
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