JOHN Plumtree has gone from poacher to game-keeper in Dublin this week.
The Kiwi was Ireland's forwards coach at the start of Joe Schmidt's reign and that near-miss against the All Blacks in only Schmidt's second game in charge in 2013 still rankles with him.
"It was a pretty tough one, I was annoyed after that," said Plumtree, who left the role after two seasons and, after returning to the club game in New Zealand and in an assistant role with Japan, is now the All Blacks' forwards coach.
"Nothing like coaching against the All Blacks and doing well but I suppose it wasn’t meant to be.
“One thing I do remember was Steve Hansen coming up to me afterwards and saying would it be OK to come into the Irish changing-room to have a word to the boys.
"He said, ‘Listen boys, bad luck tonight but just use this as fuel to kick on for a really good Six Nations.
"We went on and did really well and won it so it was a good launching pad for us that year.”
Fast forward eight years and Plumtree is happy to be visiting Dublin again. The All Blacks dined in the Guinness Storehouse this evening and will have tomorrow off.
But he expects a "war" come Saturday against an Ireland team that were "brutal" in their execution against Japan.
He is particularly looking forward to going up against his former pack leader, Paul O'Connell, who is now Ireland's forwards coach.
"It's good to see him passing on all his knowledge to some of those young fellahs in the forward pack, I'm sure they're really enjoying him," Plumtree said.
"I loved my short time here and really enjoyed working with the Irish forward pack and Paul in particular.
"I see Cian Healy's there, Iain Henderson, so there's a few of the boys that I was coaching back in the day there. It will be good to catch up with them afterwards.
“I’m not sure they’ll fear us. Ireland will believe that they can beat us.
"That will be based on how they played last week and their preparation this week. We understand that as an All Black team and that’s what excites us as well.
“We are in a rugby-mad country, we know that they are after our scalp and that’s when the All Blacks are at their best, when we feel like our backs are against the wall and we have to come out swinging and that’s what we’ll do.”
