Cricket: Ed Joyce believes England have a chance to build on their World Cup momentum against his former Ireland team-mates in their opening match of the 'Super-Eight' stage.
The Wickow man could have easily been wearing the green of Ireland in Friday's showdown at the Providence Stadium had he not decided to try to qualify for England under residential rules.
That qualification came through two years ago and, having helped Ireland reach this tournament for the first time, he faces his old pals now as an established member of England's line-up.
But he has little time for sentiment other than wishing Ireland well and the 28-year-old believes facing non-Test standard opposition at this stage could help England's bid to reach the semi-finals.
"You want to peak at the right time in these tournaments and we'd like to think we're getting there," said Joyce, who made his one-day international debut against Ireland in Belfast last summer. "We had a reasonable game against Canada, even if we didn't set the world on fire, and we thought we played pretty well against Kenya."
Those two victories, which followed a disappointing opening defeat against New Zealand, booked their place in the last eight and now they face Ireland as a warm-up for bigger challenges when they take on Sri Lanka and Australia in the space of four days in Antigua.
"I didn't start too well with the duck against New Zealand, but I've got a couple of 50s in the last two games so there's a bit of form there and I just want to continue that against Ireland and then into the bigger games following that," said Joyce.
"I think it's a good thing we're playing Ireland now so we can try to keep that momentum going and then we have two massive games in Antigua which we need to win at least one of so we're just hoping to build on the momentum and peak at the right time.
"It's a massive game. I didn't expect to be playing Ireland twice in my first 15 games for England so it's a bit of a strange one - it should be a great occasion and I'm really happy that Ireland got through."
Joyce has been a font of knowledge for England in the build-up to Friday's match with team analyst Mark Garaway asking for tips from him on Ireland's strengths and weaknesses.
"I know 11 or 12 of the guys pretty well but there are couple who have come in who I haven't seen very much of," admitted Joyce. "I will be able to help out with a few tips but you have to keep things pretty basic against most teams.
"The same plans tend to work whether you're playing against Australia or against Ireland so I think we're going to be keeping it pretty simple."
He added: "Ireland play as a unit very well, they field very well and they've caught everything that's gone in the air. They take all their chances, they bowl as a unit and they've got a lot of medium-pacers and spinners who bowl very straight and they bat all the way down to number 10.
"They do the simple things very well so they are a difficult unit to come up against, but we're hoping to get on top of them early and stay there."