All Blacks slayer Andy Farrell believes the world champions won't fancy having to face Ireland in a World Cup quarter-final next Saturday in Tokyo.
Japan's thrilling victory over Scotland in Yokohama yesterday saw the hosts leapfrog Ireland into top spot in Pool A - and that means they will face South Africa on Sunday.
As runners-up, Ireland take on Pool B winners New Zealand. But they won't fear Steve Hansen's side, having beaten them twice since 2016 - in Chicago and in Dublin.
Farrell, who succeeds Joe Schmidt at the end of the tournament, has in fact defeated the All Blacks four times as a defence coach - with England (2012) and the Lions (2017), as well as with Ireland.
“We’d like to think that nobody thinks it’s nice playing against Ireland," he said. "There’s one thing for sure, come the weekend it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing against, we’ll certainly be hard to beat, there’s no doubt about that.
“There’s been a good start to the tournament (by Ireland) and everyone’s reported on a levelling off or a blip along the way (against Japan) but there’s a nice bit of confidence from Saturday's performance.
“Can that be better? Does it need to be better? 100 percent it does, and that’s a good thing for us going forward as well.”
The All Blacks' high quality victory over South Africa was one of the high points of the pool stages but Farrell doesn't believe it's necessarily about reaching a similar standard in a knock-out game.
"We have to be ready for that but, again, you don’t know how it will turn out," said Farrell. "You’ve seen the top teams in the world play each other and it’s turned out to be a scrappy game.
"We’ll have to be able to adapt to whatever the occasion throws, the moments that are in front of our face.
"But I agree, that was a great game, very high standard - we’ve come up against it a few times ourselves in the past and we tend to get the best out of ourselves in those situations as well.
"You’ve got to score points against the All Blacks, because they’re a dangerous threat. You’ve got to take your game to them and I think we’ve been able to do it in the past.
"Whoever has beaten them of late has taken their game to them.
"But they’re a pretty formidable side. You have to play your own game and score points because there’s no doubt they will."
Ireland have never made it beyond the quarter-finals but Farrell has a reason why it can happen this time.
“Our preparation," he stated. "I thought last week our preparation was spot on.
"We got well rested but yet got across our work. I think you could see what we stood for out there (against Samoa). We’ll go through that as well this week.
"It’s quite nice to have a seven turnaround to be able to get across our work and prepare properly. That’s certainly stood us in good stead in the past and I’m sure it will be the same.
History, insists Farrell, is not weighing heavily on the players.
“Not at all," he stressed.
"Honestly, it wouldn’t be anyone’s thinking within the management, never mind the playing group - not for one second, because there’s a job to do and we’ll give it our best shot.
"It’s a big old week coming up. But it’s a brilliant place to be".
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