Captain Johnny Sexton says Ireland must keep evolving in order to avoid repeating the mistake of peaking too soon for a World Cup.
The Irish travelled to the 2019 tournament in Japan with high expectations following a Six Nations Grand Slam and a statement victory over New Zealand the previous year but suffered a familiar quarter-final exit.
With the 2023 World Cup on the horizon, Andy Farrell's in-form side are poised to test their current credentials during a three-match series against the All Blacks.
Fly-half Sexton, who will retire after next year’s competition in France, is striving to maintain the upward trajectory having helped silence the doubters during an unconvincing start to Farrell’s reign as head coach.
"We were written off left, right and centre and we’ve come back and we’ve showed some great stuff," he told Sky Sports ahead of Saturday's first Test in Auckland.
"We’ve had some great results to go with it because we were always saying, 'it’s coming, it’s coming’ and I think people were looking at us going, ‘is it really?’.
"And now we’ve got to keep it going.
"We’ve got to keep improving because that’s the mistake we made in the last cycle for the World Cup; we probably peaked in 2018 and we didn’t continue to evolve and that’s what we’re keen to not let happen."
Ireland have won 12 of their last 13 Tests, including defeating New Zealand 29-20 in Dublin last autumn to partially avenge World Cup elimination at their hands in Tokyo.
Sexton, who turns 37 in less than a fortnight, will lead his country at Eden Park this weekend, with further meetings with Ian Foster’s All Blacks to come in Dunedin and Wellington.
He believes the tour is the ideal opportunity to increase squad depth, with five uncapped players among the initial 40-man travelling party.
"We’ve put some fresh faces on this tour that we need to get up to speed, that we need to create that really competitive environment for that next World Cup," he said.
"We need a lot of guys to be ready and that’s what the point of this tour is, to test us and to see how deep we can go in our squad."
Meanwhile, All Blacks head coach Foster joked he was unsure whether he was "sick or nervous" after suffering cold sweats and sleepless nights ahead of the first Test with Ireland following a positive Covid-19 test.
Foster expects to be in attendance at a sold-out Eden Park on the back of disrupted preparation carried out remotely.
Coronavirus has swept through the All Blacks camp, with assistant coaches John Plumtree, Scott McLeod and Greg Feek also forced to isolate, in addition to players David Havili, Jack Goodhue and Will Jordan.
"As long as things go well and I stay the way I’m staying then the answer to that is 'yes’," Foster told a press conference, when asked if he will be at the match.
"I was one of those ones that was pretty lucky really.
First of 2022 🔥#NZLvIRE pic.twitter.com/rQ5OuWInvD
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) June 29, 2022
"The first two nights were cold sweats and sleepless nights, so that’s pretty normal for an All Blacks head coach before the first Test of the year. I wasn’t quite sure if I was sick or nervous!
"I’ve actually got through it pretty lightly to be fair and maybe being a little bit distracted with something else on my mind has helped me."
Foster’s team selection includes a debut for Crusaders wing Leicester Fainga’anuk and regular second-rower Scott Barrett picked at blindside flanker for the first time since the 2019 World Cup.
Openside flanker Sam Cane captains the hosts, while lock Sam Whitelock will surpass Keven Mealamu as the second most-capped All Black Test player after being selected for his 133rd Test.
Whitelock’s fellow Test centurions Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett form the half-back partnership.
Former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt, who was scheduled to join New Zealand’s setup after the series, has been in camp to assist with preparations due to the enforced absences among the coaching team.
Foster admits there have been plenty of alterations to his plans.
Speaking on @GameOn2FM Shane Byrne analyses just what went wrong for Ireland as they were well beaten by the Maori All Blacks in the first game of their Tour of New Zealand. #RTERugby pic.twitter.com/huDfAY29q2
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) June 29, 2022
Asked how many times he has redone the team sheet, the 57-year-old said: "A lot – and that’s just with the management team. Clearly, it’s been intriguing.
"Quite frankly people are getting used to communicating and being communicated to by Zoom so it’s something that we talked about may happen.
"I didn’t really want it to be me that got snipered first but that’s the way it worked.
"It hasn’t been easy preparing a Test team from home and I’ve probably got to apologise to my wife for my behaviour for the last four days.
"Between that and the rolling-the-sleeves up attitude of our leaders, I think we've just done it collectively. Hey, it’s not the way we planned but it doesn’t mean it can’t be equally effective.
"We’re excited with the team we’re putting out. It doesn’t change the statement we want to put out."
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