Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has warned his team that wounded Scotland will be eager to undermine the good work completed at the Stade de France yesterday.
Ireland were edged 26-21 by the RBS 6 Nations champions following a remarkable second-half fightback spearheaded by their rampant pack.
The display has given Irish rugby, reeling from a disastrous World Cup and poor tournament opener against Italy, a welcome lift ahead of the showdown with Scotland in two weeks' time.
O'Sullivan is wary of a team that has slipped to successive defeats to France and Wales but has challenged his players to develop some consistency.
"The trick is to repeat what we achieved against France in the next games," he said today.
"But you can't take anything for granted. We played some sparkling rugby in last year's Six Nations but it wasn't like that every week.
"We weren't happy with our display against Wales, we played very well but lost in the last minute to France and then gave our best performance — maybe ever as an Ireland team — against England.
"Then we won ugly in Edinburgh before we sparked in Rome. The Six Nations is like that.
"You have the expectation of building on each performance. Scotland are coming to Croke Park and will have a big say in that.
"Scotland are smarting after losing both games. They're sore about that and will come to Dublin wanting to upset us."
Ireland have faced a barrage of criticism since the start of the World Cup with O'Sullivan bearing the brunt of the vitriol.
But the 49-year-old has earnt some breathing space from his side's second-half heroics and he admits the display has come as a relief.
"We've been looking to get back to a level of performance in the team and we didn't manage that in the World Cup," he said.
"We hoped the Six Nations would be an opportunity to get back to where we were. We weren't a million miles off against Italy, we just weren't clinical enough and that's not unusual in the opening match of the Six Nations.
"The challenge then was to build on that and it's fair to say there's almost a sense of relief that we got that performance against France.
Munster lock Paul O'Connell remains on course to face Scotland after continuing his rehabilitation from a back injury in Friday's A team victory over Ulster.
Jerry Flannery, who had his suspension for stamping halved last week, will not be in consideration for selection until Wales on March 8.
"Jerry has a fractured hand and I'm awaiting an update on him," said O'Sullivan.
"If that's OK he'll still need a warm-up game to get him in Six Nations mood."
