Despite all the success the Munster forwards have enjoyed this season, you will not find them talking themselves up.
The Ireland eight that pack down against New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday night will include seven Heineken Cup winners and Jamie Heaslip, who won the Magners League with Leinster.
They face an All Blacks pack with a vastly-different look to the one that took to the field in the quarter-final against France at the World Cup.
Gone are front-rowers Carl Hayman and Anton Oliver and enforcers Jerry Collins and Keith Robinson, while Tony Woodcock is suffering from a foot injury and is not available for Saturday's Test at Westpac Stadium.
Of the five players remaining from last year's squad in Saturday's starting forward pack only Ali Williams, Rodney So'oialo and captain Richie McCaw started that game against France.
So'oialo will pack down at six this weekend with the recalled Jerome Kaino set to earn his third cap coming in at the back of the scrum.
Neemia Tialata, who was at the World Cup but did not play in the quarter-final, starts at loosehead prop alongside hooker Andrew Hore, who came on as a replacement in Cardiff, and tighthead John Afoa is back in black for the first time since 2006 with lock Brad Thorn in the international fray for the first time since the 2003 World Cup in Australia.
On top of that, Saturday's Test will be the first match New Zealand have played since last year's World Cup failure.
In contrast, Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Denis Leamy and David Wallace will know each other's games inside out after a tough season, which culminated in Munster's 16-13 Heineken Cup final victory against Toulouse.
But O'Callaghan, who enhanced his reputation as a world-class lock during the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 2005, claims despite all that, the Irish do not believe the All Blacks have lost their edge up front.
‘We've always respected the All Blacks forwards,’ he said. ‘Other people might run their mouth off on stuff like that but we certainly wouldn't.
‘I think teams that perceive themselves to be bigger and stronger are going to make an issue out of it but it wouldn't be from us.’
Two years ago Ireland let two golden chances to beat New Zealand for the first time slip through their fingers in Hamilton and Auckland.
But O'Callaghan believes if the Irish get themselves in a similar position on Saturday, the players now have the mental strength to get across the line.
‘If you ask any team, winning is kind of contagious, you get used to winning really close games. In the last ten minutes, when you've been winning all season, you believe you can do it.
‘That has happened to us a bit at Munster and hopefully we can carry it on into (this match). There is a self-belief now that we can win tight games.
‘Hopefully, if Saturday is close, we might have the mental reserve where we didn't before.
‘You look back two years ago with eight minutes to go we were two or three points up and you don't get many opportunities like that against the All Blacks. You've got to take them when they come about.’
There is a sense now Ireland are no longer just happy to be seen to be competing with countries such as New Zealand and Australia.
And O'Callaghan insists much of that change in attitude was sparked by Roy Keane, who famously walked out of the Republic of Ireland's World Cup squad in 2002 after a bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy sparked by what he felt was a lack of professionalism and drive within the Irish set-up.
Keane is in Wellington this week spending time in the All Blacks camp as part of his Uefa Pro Licence coaching course and will be at Saturday's game.
O'Callaghan added: ‘You get the perception that everyone thinks we're nice people and we do our best. But he (Keane) made a huge stand at the World Cup and that's fed off now in Irish sports people that it is no longer acceptable to go out and be happy enough to be thereabouts.
‘Irish people shouldn't just be happy with competing, we should look to win.’
