Series win changed Ireland-All Blacks relationship for good

It may have started when Steve Hansen wondered aloud how Ireland would cope with the target on their backs.

Chastened by a first ever Dublin defeat to Ireland, one year out from the 2019 World Cup, the All Blacks boss put it out there.

"It's their turn [as the world's best] at the moment so we'll see how they cope with that," he said.

Not very well as it turned out.

Hansen's quip wasn’t quite praise from Caesar but Ireland were firmly on the New Zealand radar. At last.

There has been a distinct dynamic change in the teams’ recent relationship.

Chicago altered the landscape. Dublin, two years later, made them sit up and take notice.

The repeat defeat in 2021, two years after the Kiwi’s World Cup quarter-final win had appeared to restore natural order, added to the argument that this Ireland side were not staying in their place as plucky underdogs.

And the series win in 2022 established a new order.

New Zealand became just another team. There are still a quality outfit but Ireland are now peers of equal status.

The summer tour last year came 10 years after the last visit to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

After losing the opening 2012 Test 42-10, Ireland had victory in sight in the next game but the All Blacks worked field position to snap over a drop goal to claim the win. It finished 22-19.

In an RTÉ documentary aired last September, Conor Murray recalled how the team felt in the aftermath.

"Back then, and still now, the All Blacks can probably draw you in to a little bit of a trap," he said.

"For a few days after that game we were like,' Jesus, lads, we took them to the edge there.'

"We probably thought it would happen again. It was a good learning curve for us, how when you wound the animal like that, how big they are going to come