Ireland may have endured a more trying end to this year's Six Nations than was anticipated, but there remains little doubt that despite their third-place finish, Andy Farrell has cemented the country's position among world rugby's very best.
Few, if any games of the Farrell era exemplified that more than Ireland's loss to New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-final, where the two countries' newfound rivalry came to a head in a game so epic it will go down in the history books.
While a decade ago New Zealand would have scoffed at the prospect of playing a quarter-final against an Ireland side who had never beaten them, Will Jordan has revealed that coming into the 2023 World Cup, New Zealand spent the whole season preparing to face just one team; Ireland.
READ ALSO: 'I Hope Jack Gets Every Penny': O'Callaghan Calls 'Bullsh*t' On Ireland Treatment Of Crowley
READ ALSO: BOD Reveals Lions Teammate Was Spooked By Savage Ronan O'Gara Remark
14 October 2023; Josh van der Flier of Ireland is tackled by Rieko Ioane, left, and Will Jordan of New Zealand during the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match between Ireland and New Zealand at the Stade de France in Paris, France. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Will Jordan memory of Ireland quarter-final sums up just how good Ireland were
Speaking on the Good, the Bad, the Rugby Australia & New Zealand, Jordan who donned 14 for New Zealand that day, explained that so 'massive' was the task of beating Ireland that they not only spent the entire Rugby Championship preparing for it but completely overhauled the way they played rugby as well.
From when the draw was done two years out, you sort of knew, those quarter-finals were going to be us vs France or Ireland or the Springboks, it was gonna be all go and a huge game.
We'd had a great history against Ireland the two years before that where they'd had the wood on us a little bit, so they were flying and number one in the world so we knew it was going to be a massive game.
Everything we'd done strategy-wise that year, like rugby championship, how we were playing, was like dictated by how we wanted to play against Ireland.
So give the coaching staff a bit of credit about how they set us up for that because we went from being quite an aggressive line-speed team where they were just picking us off with their short passing, Sexton wrapping around and we couldn't defend it, we went from that to more of a push connected [team]
When we first came to camp it took a little while for everyone to buy into it, it was quite a big change right before the world cup, ended up buying into it and it was massively critical in that game.
From a team of New Zealand's stature, the lengths they went to in pursuit of victory over Andy Farrell's men should be taken as the highest of praise, and as a testament to just how formidable a force Ireland have become in recent years.
Fortunately, Ireland will have their shot at revenge for both that 2023 quarter-final and their more recent November clash, when the two sides meet in Chicago later this year for a replay of their historic 2016 Soldier Field clash.
