Ireland lock Devin Toner has revealed he is feeling in better shape than last year as he prepares to face Argentina in Dublin on Saturday.
Toner has been playing a lot of rugby during Joe Schmidt's time in charge of the national side.
No one has won more caps under Schmidt than Toner, having played in 45 of the 50 games under his charge, starting 41.
He is 31 and with Jamie Heaslip out injured, he is one of the most experienced campaigners in the Irish squad.
"I take a lot of confidence from that," he told the Belfast Telegraph of his consistent selection. "My injury profile stands to me as well, it shows that I do try to take care of myself."
Physically, Toner offers plenty and is a great example to the young locks in the squad as he has a squeaky-clean disciplinary record.
"A lot of the younger lads are trying to get into that Joe way of thinking of doing everything right," he said. "Joe wants stability, he wants reassurance and doesn't want anyone making mistakes.
"I'd like to think from my demeanour I keep quite calm on the pitch as well. I need to be when calling lineouts, trying to think about the game plan and moves, what we're going to do.
"I wouldn't say I go for 0-60, I just get on with it."
Toner admits he is feeling his age when he looks at the youngsters around him.
"I'm feeling a little bit older these days," he said with a smile. "You're always thinking about it.
"I'm 31 now, 32 next June and seeing these young lads coming up… James Ryan is 21-years-old and he's hugely strong, hugely fast, but I think everyone thinks that.
"You have one bad game and you think you're done, one good game and you're top of the world.
"I say I feel old but in my body I don't. It's just around the place I feel older than all the rest of them. But I actually feel better than I did last year. I'd like to think I'm playing better, I've lost a fair bit of weight and I'm getting around the pitch a bit more.
"I feel better in my body than I did last year.
"It was a personal focus for me in pre-season to lose a good amount of weight. I went up to 131kg (20st 9lb) last year, but a lot of that was fat. I got rid of that and I'm down to 123kg (19st 5lb) now.
"It's a fair amount of weight to be carrying around."
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