Rory Best says Ireland have no intention of 'hiding behind' their historic First Test victory over South Africa, and is determined to lead the country to one of its greatest performances in this weekend's series decider.
Joe Schmidt's side have already rewritten the record books on this tour, winning for the first time ever on South African soil in the First Test in Cape Town.
After Ireland threw away a second-half lead at Ellis Park last weekend, the series will be decided on Saturday at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, and even though these tourists will always be remembered for breaking Ireland's Springbok duck, Best has always had his eyes on the bigger prize.
"It’s enormous for us. It’s a real opportunity to take another step forward," the Irish hooker said of the make-or-break Test in an interview with RTÉ Sport.
"We’re here ultimately to create history and win a Test series. We feel we’re good enough.
"You can hide behind the history made in the first test all you want but for us as, a 32-man squad, that wasn’t enough. We wanted a Test series. We almost got it last week and we now have another go at creating history.
"We didn’t come here to just try and scrape a win somewhere and be the first Irish side to do that. We’ve done that but, ultimately, for us that’s not enough.
"We’re on the cusp of winning a Test series. I’ll certainly not be back here with Ireland again.
"Some of the guys might be young enough to hang on for long enough but a lot of the players in the squad won’t get the opportunity to play in a Test series in South Africa, never mind be 1-1 going into the last game with a chance to win it.
"That’s our mindset, that’s where we’re at. In Dublin we never looked beyond the first test in Cape Town but it was always in the back of our mind that when we win that one, we want to win the series."
"We didn’t come here to just try and scrape a win somewhere and be the first Irish side to do that. We’ve done that but, ultimately, for us that’s not enough."
The Ulster hooker knows that South Africa will only grow further in strength after another week together under new head coach Allister Coetzee, and accepts that Ireland need to deliver "one of the greatest performances that an Irish side has ever produced" to emerge triumphant.
"We need to turn up and we need to physically front up and we need to be mentally right on the money to do it. We know we have a team capable of doing that," Best said.
"The big thing for us is that we have to play. We have to attack them and keep going at them. We feel we lost control of the (Second Test) through a couple of errors we made. They are a quality side and they capitalised on them massively, but we feel we gave them the access and the ability to capitalise.
"We’re fully confident that we’ve worked hard to put those things right but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding.
"We’re probably going to have to set a standard that this Irish group hasn’t set yet, that Irish groups from the past have probably set. But that’s the standard we’re going to need to get to.
"We’re going to need one of the greatest performances that an Irish side has ever produced, but you look at some of the young talented players that are getting a chance and are setting high standards in provincial rugby – yeah, they need to step it up and are they capable of doing that? – I fully believe they are."
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