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 out the next week."
New Zealand ran in 60 points seven days later.
"They tore us apart. They were quite annoyed how close the second Test got. The worst day in an Irish jersey," said Keith Earls.
The 2022 first Test ended with a 42-19 defeat for Farrell’s side but this Ireland team believed that they hadn’t fired a shot.
"Before our second Test against New Zealand last year, [Andy Farrell] gave the best pre-game speech I’ve ever heard," Mack Hansen revealed in a Daily Mail interview over the summer.
"It was like something out of a movie. We’d been pumped in the first Test and he walked in and gave this spiel.
"There was no looking around at your feet, you’re literally dead-eyed on him the whole time.
"He was like, 'These f***ers don’t even know your f***ing name, make sure by the end of this night they know who the f**k you are’.
"It’s actually true because when you play New Zealand, you feel like you know who they are but I reckon none of them would know who you are. Just, no one ever says it.
"Andy wasn’t afraid to say it. We were thinking, ‘F**k yeah, let’s go’. And we went out and won."
And what happened next epitomised the current state of affairs and how much the relationship has changed.
Now fully aware of what Ireland could bring to the table, and having taken away their unbeaten record in the Forsyth Barr Stadium, the All Blacks stood on the verge of another historic and humbling defeat.
"In the third Test the next week [Farrell] said, ‘all right lads, they know your name now but they still don’t know who you are. They don’t respect you’," recalled Hansen of the speech before the 32-22 victory.
Fast forward to today's World Cup quarter-final, a juncture past which Ireland have never been and a game that New Zealand have only ever lost once in their tournament history (against France in 2007).
The suggestion from a Kiwi journalist that Ireland had sent a spy to an open training session got the bemused reaction it deserved from Mike Catt yesterday.
No one can say for sure who put that out there but it goes to show that their focus has changed and an element of paranoia in the ranks.
It may have even been a grenade tossed gently in an attempt to distract from the disruption caused by Mark Telea, the winger dropped for breaching team protocol, but whoever threw it forgot to remove the pin.
For over a hundred years the All Blacks were vastly superior and anything short of having the Ireland manager referering the game wouldn’t have bothered them.
Something is eating away at them now and it’s what Ireland are capable of when they get it right.
There was a joke about Irish playwrights getting busy every time an Irish side beat the All Blacks. And it was true up until about five years ago.
Alone it Stands stood the test of time as a tribute to Munster's famous 1978 victory over New Zealand.
After Ireland ended a 111-year wait for a victory, in Chicago in 2016, Soldier Field played in Dublin.
They’ve stopped writing dramas about beating the All Blacks now.
"The summit for us? No, because we view the World Cup as the end point of this team's journey," said Johnny Sexton about the series win.
Hope has been replaced by expectation. The expectation has been built on performances and results.
New Zealand can beat Ireland this evening, but it won't, like so many times in the past, be easy.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow a live blog of Ireland v New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with kick-off 8pm. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
Watch England v Fiji and France v South Africa in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow live blogs on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app.
