Rob Kearney believes captain Rory Finest is the”glue” that holds Ireland collectively but a farewell for him and head coach Joe Schmidt is not crucial against Wales on Saturday.
Best will play his final home game in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday against Wales and will retire from rugby following the World Cup in Japan.
Schmidt will also step down after the championship after six successful years at the helm, where he has mastered three Six Nations names.
Kearney played down the importance of a send-off for the pair.
“Obviously it is important but it is not in the forefront of our thoughts,” he explained.
“Performance is huge for us and even in case you scale the performance, it is putting it into blocks; the initial 10 seconds, the next 10 minutes, and so on.
“We actually should ensure we’re firing whatsoever cylinders for this first week, [of this championship ] so this weekend is a very major step for us.
“And then you get to love and feel proud of committing Joe and Rory the significant send-off.”
Best, who also played his game in May for Ulster, will get his 120th cap against Wales – earning him the third-highest capped player in the history of Ireland – supporting Ronan O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll.
“It is huge, is not it? And occasionally I think it will get a little helpless,” Kearney stated on Finest’s leadership before Ireland’s final World Cup warm-up match.
“A number of those momentous victories we have had as a team have been under Rory. He’s a brilliant leader, he is the glue that brings the group.
“Again, he is a man who is training really well and I am sure he’s very eager to get out there and also show he’s still exceptionally capable of producing big performancesat his ripe old age”
Ireland returned to winning ways last weekend later they were comprehensively beaten by England 57-15 at Twickenham, edging out Wales 22-17 at Cardiff on Saturday.
Six weeks 24, before playing hosts Japan, schmidt’s side face Scotland in their World Cup group stage game on September 22.
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