Dan Sheehan insists that Ireland's Leinster stars never tired towards the end of the Six Nations - and says they are up for the business end of the season.
The Blues blew up at the end of the last two seasons and, as a result, the constant silverware winners have not lifted a trophy since 2022, when they last won the URC.
There was criticism that as Ireland - with so many Leinster players on board - progressed towards their latest Six Nations triumph that the players tired as performances dipped.
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"That's the first I've heard of it," said Sheehan, speaking ahead of Saturday's Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton.
"Completely wrong read. You know, it's natural that this part of the season bodies aren't 100%.
"You've got to front up a little bit, play with niggles or whatever, but I think as a professional player in the Leinster and Irish squad this is the most exciting part of the season.
"You have to bring everything more, energy wise - it's in your weeks and in your performances.
"We've come up short how many times the last couple of years and we know what it means to this club, this competition.
"So I think we're in a really good place, the energy levels are good.
"That was a big part of us not travelling to South Africa, to make sure the energy levels were there.
"I think everyone's excited to get going now for the last few weeks of the season."
Sheehan's team-mate Robbie Henshaw said before the quarter-final win over La Rochelle that he is "obsessed" with helping the province to win a fifth star on the jersey.
The hooker, however, has a different outlook. During his week off after La Rochelle he headed down to Connemara to play golf with a couple of friends.
"I just sort of recharged the batteries and went again," said Sheehan.
"I felt ready to go, bouncing back in and couldn't wait to get back stuck in. Whereas if you're bouncing week after week, it can be tough.
"No, I'm not obsessed. I feel like I'm quite good personally about coming in and out of rugby. When I'm off, I'm off.
"It doesn't rattle through my mind at night or when I'm at home, which, for me, is really important."
Sheehan raises his arm high. "I think some lads maybe in the past have been up here the whole time," he explained.
"And then it's impossible to keep your energy levels of rugby the whole way through the week up in the top range, and then having to go perform on a Saturday when you're drained from the week.
"So we talk about when we're on, we're on, and then take your time off, enjoy the week.
"There's 40 lads in the dressing room. Have the craic, enjoy being part of the club in the dressing room, and when we're on, we'll put our heads to the wall and we really go for it.
"But make sure you're enjoying the time."
The prolific 25-year-old has no GAA background to speak of and, when Leinster last played in Croke Park in 2009, he was living in Bucharest with his family.
But he still understands how "huge" it is for the Blues to sell-out Croker.
"It is hugely exciting for us to go to such a special place like that, where rugby hasn't been played for a while, to have it sold out with 82,000 people, it is going to be immense," Sheehan noted.
"We can't really get carried away. We talked about it that a crowd will only come alive on the back of a performance and we can't rely on a performance just coming on the back of 82,000 people showing up.
"So we are focussed on how we start the game, on how we can get the crowd on our side, the majority being Leinster and feeding off the energy Croke Park can give you.
"We talked a little bit about how you can't get consumed by the idea of this big stadium with all this history and stuff.
"But definitely we might be able to feed off it, get some of the energy back if our performance starts well on Saturday."
Meanwhile, Sheehan says that having full belief in Jacques Nienaber's defensive system is key to Leinster making the Champions Cup final.
Sheehan has high praise for Premiership leaders Northampton Saints' attacking game - but he also feels that Leinster have now really got to grips with Nienaber's defensive demands.
Keeping La Rochelle to just one try in two meetings this season underlines the improvement made and the hooker feels it has been a gradual process.
"It obviously takes a while, bringing in such a new system with Jacques," Sheehan said.
"Coming off the back of the World Cup it did take a while, but we were fully aware that it was always going to.
"So we're getting to a point now where we're fully bought into it and I think everyone believes in it, 100%.
Then it's just how well you can execute it and stay on top of the little things, evolving in our defensive system.
"But, yeah, we're going to have to be properly on our game defensively to make sure we keep them at arm's length and really put them under pressure and make them experience maybe something they haven't experienced this season.
"I know Exeter probably have a similar defensive system to us, good line speed and putting teams under pressure, which Northampton did a good job of picking them off during the year.
"We believe that our defensive system can put them under pressure if we do it right.
"The only problem would be if we didn't fully commit to it and we got indecisive and they started picking us off."
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