Preview: Third Test more than a 'free shot' for Ireland

Whichever way you look at it, the challenge facing Ireland is enormous.

France, way back in 1994, remain the last team to defeat the All Blacks in a Test series, but that's just one of many facts around this game that puts context on the task at hand.

To overturn the series from 1-0, Ireland would not only have had to beat them, but to do it on consecutive weeks. It's 13 years since a team backed up a win against the All Blacks with another the following week - South Africa in 2009 for those wondering. The last team to do it in New Zealand? See above, France in 1994.

South Africa have the luxury of playing them every year, but for the northern hemisphere sides who tour New Zealand at the end of a long season, things have been bleak.

Prior to last weekend, they hadn't been beaten at home by a northern hemisphere side since the Lions in 2017. France (2009) and England (2003) are the only other northern hemisphere sides to win a game on New Zealand soil this century.

Make no doubt about it, a series win against New Zealand in New Zealand would be huge.

And while there will always be those who mark every achievement in Irish rugby with the immortal words of 'World Cup quarter-final', what better way to replicate the white-hot environment and strangling pressure of tournament rugby than with consecutive win-or-bust games against the market leaders.

"If you want to win a World Cup, you have to win a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final, three weekends on the trot. You couldn't get a better challenge in terms of having to back up what they did against New Zealand last week, and doing it again next week," said Donal Lenihan on this week's RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"That's where you'll really learn about where this Irish team are at."

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