Peter O'Mahony believes that facing the All Blacks in a World Cup quarter-final is a "different animal" to Ireland's recent victories over the world champions.
Joe Schmidt's men record historic first victories over New Zealand in Chicago in 2016 and Dublin last November.
But O'Mahony, who was in inspired form in the latter game, said: "You look back and it’s so different now.
"It’s a long time ago, and you certainly take confidence from those performances.
"But on the flip side it’s a different animal.
"A World Cup is different and they’re a different squad now, as we are, and it’s just own little cup battle for both teams.
"But these are the weeks that you work so hard for and you certainly look back on them, whatever way the result goes.”
The Munster skipper will take bits and pieces from the last three meetings of the sides - the All Blacks won in November 2017 in Dublin, a couple of weeks after losing at Soldier Fields.
"If I’d been sitting here and we’d never beaten them, you know, it probably would be a little bit different," he acknowledged.
"But at this level, at this stage and where this team is at, it’s just a little bubble in the bigger bubble of the World Cup, this little game. A cup battle as I said.
“So you certainly look back and you review but at the end of the day it doesn’t count for a huge amount if you don’t perform at the weekend - and that’s the main thing.
"That’s what we’ll be doing our level best to try and achieve this week, is have us build into a performance that we can have the opportunity to try and beat the best team in the world".
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