Andy Farrell insists that Ireland are now much more comfortable being top dogs and have shed any "inferiority complex" that existed before.
The team are one victory away from an international record-equalling 18th win in a row, a record currently held jointly by New Zealand (2015-2016) and England (2015-2017).
As it happens, both of those streaks were ended by Ireland.
But the shoe is on the other foot now and Ireland are ranked number one, a spell that stretches over 66 consecutive weeks since July last year.
Grand Slam champions Ireland are marginal favourites for Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash in Paris (8pm).
It’s the first time the team, who beat New Zealand in three of their last four encounters, have been tipped against the All Blacks by bookmakers.
In fact, since 1996, the three-time World Cup winners have been favourites in all bar five of 359 matches.
All five games where they were underdogs came in away matches against South Africa and they went on to lose four of those fixtures.
"Performance anxiety" was blamed for Ireland’s poor showing in Japan four years ago as they lost to the hosts in the pool stages before being "beaten out the gate", according to Johnny Sexton, by New Zealand in the last-eight.
"I suppose an inferiority complex is what's happened in the past in terms of getting to world number one and thinking that we're going to fall off a cliff because this shouldn't be happening to Ireland," said Farrell after naming his side yesterday.
"But, what we've tried to do is throw ourselves into challenges and meet them head on and embrace that.
"We don't want to be second best, we want to be first best.
"We also realise that people are chasing you down hard. You've seen [it] with the All Blacks over the last 20 years - that's why they're so respected because it's very hard to stay at the top.
"The guys that are the favourites are the ones I've always looked at throughout my career and envied really, because of how hard it is to do that.
"It's the place we want to be. If you're serious about getting better, being the team that you want to be, that's the world that you've got to live in.
"It's another big game in front of us.
"At this stage, it's all about preparation and recovery and making sure there's an ownership of the plan that you're going to try to apply to the opposition at the weekend.
"We immerse ourselves with that, it's the only way it should be.
"Of course, things start to creep in, but we've tools and experience to combat all that.
"The main part is to remember that we're a bloody good team that play together and, when we do that, you're not on your own, so you can get away from those type of thoughts."
Meanwhile, captain Sexton (below) says Ireland won't lean on their recent good record against Ian Foster’s men.
Since the 46-14 defeat in Tokyo, Ireland have beaten the All Blacks 29-20, 23-12 and 32-22, with the last two wins coming in New Zealand.
"You can look at the last few games, you can say the last time we played them in the quarter-final and got beaten out the gate, it doesn’t really matter," said the 38-year-old.
"Despite us winning the series down there, they were incredibly tough games. So the [players] know what’s coming, they know how tough it’s going to be.
"And that’s the most important thing, the physicality that New Zealand bring, the pace they play at, they’re all the things we talk about.
"We’re not talking about who’s won this or who’s won… we’re very much focused on this weekend and what we expect from them.
"That’s said with the utmost respect because we don’t respect teams more than we do the All Blacks. Their record speaks for itself really."
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