Conor Murray reckons Ireland are a better team now than they were when they beat the All Blacks last November.
The Munster star, who this week with Johnny Sexton breaks the Ireland half-back partnership, missed that game with a neck injury that took him time to come back from.
But he's getting back to his best now and he believes, after a patchy 2019, Ireland are getting there now in time for the World Cup quarter-final tomorrow.
"We’re always pushing to get better and perform better," said Murray.
"We had a pretty good learning curve during the Six Nations and had an honest review of that.
"We’ve come through and we’ve been on song when we’ve been at it.
“I definitely think we’re a better team than we have been and that’s no surprise.
"That’s the kind of environment we have and we’re in every week to push the limits and push each other - to be honest with each other and try and get better.
“We’ve built our way through this World Cup and performances have got, you know, started really well and since Japan, we’ve got better and better.
"There’s a good confidence about the group. There’s a good buzz around camp.
“We’re used to these big weeks against big teams and we’ve created little bits of history along the way against different opposition or whatever and it’s an exciting week.
"We know if we turn up and perform well...you’ve probably heard me say it an awful amount of times but it's the truth, if we go well we’ll be there or thereabouts.”
Bullish words from Murray ,especially since it's less than three weeks since that surprise loss to Japan, although the hosts subsequently showed against Scotland that they deserve their place in the last eight of the tournament.
“Throughout the last four or so years, confidence levels has been pretty steady," the 30-year-old explained.
“Look at our track record our wins and things like that, there is a reason for that. In terms of this World Cup, to get your confidence levels in the right place, we have been steadily building and building.
"Performance wise, we have been building and building.
“You look back at the history of this team, we have been there and done it against big opposition and I think that's really exciting.
“It's unusual for an Irish team to say that. I think over the last four or five years, we have kind of earned the right to feel like that at times.
“Having performed pretty well in the last couple of weeks and with a bit more to go, and the fact, again going back, that we have been there knowing that we can perform at those levels is really exciting.
"It's really exciting, and maybe that day in Chicago, we were really excited, the confidence levels were up, we were enjoying it...you've got to enjoy these moments, you've got to prepare as well as you can, give it your all, but enjoyment helps you be confident.
"You take those chances that if you were a little bit nervous, you might be a bit restricted, you might be a bit tense.
"But the group is a confident group, a realistic group, and it's a good one to be involved in".
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