Tadhg Beirne has played down any suggestion that Ireland and New Zealand's players have a personal dislike for each other, saying their rivalry is purely professional.
Revenge has been the common word of the week in the build-up to this Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final, with the All Blacks looking to get one over Ireland after Andy Farrell's side claimed a famous Test series win in Wellington last year.
Ireland will also be looking to right some previous wrongs, having lost heavily to New Zealand in the quarter-final four years ago.
It's been reported in recent days that the relationship between the sides has turned sour in the year and a bit since Ireland's 2-1 Test series win, but while Beirne believes there won't be a tackle spared in the 80 minutes on Saturday, their rivalry is strictly business.
"Rugby's one of those games where when you go onto the field, you go to beat the crap out of each other for 80 minutes, and when you step off it you're happy to grab a beer with your opposition number and enjoy the moments after," he said.
Quite the opposite of the reports from New Zealand, Beirne says he and his teammates remember how well they were treated by their hosts after their series win last summer.
"It's no different with New Zealand. One thing I'll remember from New Zealand after the last Test when we beat them, we ran out of beer pretty quick, and the New Zealand squad were pretty quick to bring in their beer and leave us continue celebrating.
"That's respect too, isn't it, off-field respect. It'll be no different on Saturday, we're both going to go at it for 80 minutes, but we'll be very happy to walk into the changing room and have a beer with them."
Having waited more than 100 years for their first ever win against New Zealand, Ireland have beaten the All Blacks in five of their last eight meetings, and three of the last four.
The success in New Zealand was a major turning point for Andy Farrell's side, coming from behind to win the series 2-1.
And wile Beirne says the squad have taken huge confidence from the manner of that series win, they know it will only serve to make their opponents even more motivated.
"A series win in New Zealand hadn't been done before by an Irish side so you take confidence from that but a year and a couple of months is a long time in rugby and a long time to fix up on the weaknesses that they felt we probably overcame.
"I think they will be a different side on Saturday. Massively looking forward to the challenge but, yeah, we will take a bit of confidence from that tour but we certainly won’t be getting ahead of ourselves."
Hugo Keenan scored the second of Ireland's four tries in that series decider in Wellington, and says he expects New Zealand to be at their best at Stade de France on Saturday.
"They'll be hugely motivated," the full-back said.
"I suppose they'll try use those learnings from that campaign, but again it's knockout rugby.
"We're hugely motivated too. There's a lot on the line as well, so we're just going to be focusing on what we can control this week, getting our preparation right, training well and recovering well over the next few days.
"I suppose you have to build on a bit of the confidence that it has given you in, I suppose, coming out better in the past.
"But we haven't played them for over a year now. They will have improved massively."
Ian Foster's side are the last team to win against Ireland, dating back to the first Test in Auckland last year, with the Six Nations having won 17 games in a row since.
In another twist on this weekend's game, Andy Farrell's side would equal New Zealand and England's Tier 1 record of 18-straight wins with a victory this weekend.
But with the World Cup now at such a crucial stage, Keenan says every game is more important than the last.
"It's obviously important but so was the one last week and so was South Africa and so were all the matches in the Six Nations.
"We’ve been treating them all as knockout rugby. Its always the next game that is important. It is a big challenge but it is exactly where we want to be as well."
Beirne echoed his teammate: "Every game we come into feel likes the biggest one. You want to put the Irish jersey in a good place every time you put it on so this is no different.
"We have been preparing for the World Cup for a long time now and Faz [Andy Farrell] has created the mentality that every week is a knockout game, that we have to win it, so this is no different this week. We had to win last week to continue on in the World Cup as well. Same goes this week.
"I think even during this World Cup, we have improved game-on-game, and I think if you go back to the start of that 17 game run, I definitely think we are a much better team for sure."
Having never got beyond a quarter-final at the World Cup, Ireland's record at the tournament is infamously poor, and New Zealand head coach Ian Foster has done his best to butter them up this week when he suggested that they'll never have a better opportunity to go and win it.
And while Beirne [above] believes Ireland are capable of listing the trophy on 28 October, he says they won't be thinking further than Saturday in Paris.
"That's been our goal for the last four years [to win the World Cup]. We've put ourselves in a position to win it, but all that matters is Saturday, because if we lose on Saturday we're obviously out.
"I genuinely do feel if we can get everything right between now and Saturday and put in an 80 minute performance we'll give ourselves every chance of getting through to the next round, and we'll go from there."
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