Mack Hansen says Ireland have "nothing to lose" as they seek to end their long wait for an away win against the All Blacks in Dunedin tomorrow.
While Ireland have won three of the last six meetings between the pair, all were either on home or neutral territory with a record of 13 defeats from 13 games on New Zealand soil.
Hansen is the only change made by Andy Farrell for tomorrow's second Test of the three-game series at Forsyth Barr Stadium, with the Connacht wing coming in for Keith Earls in the 14 shirt.
To add to the Irish challenge, the All Blacks have also never lost a match at the Dunedin venue, winning all seven of their games there since the stadium opened in 2011.
"We're not here to just take part, we want to get a win over here, be the first team to do it," said Hansen.
"That's always a nice thing to have on our shoulder, we have nothing to lose. New Zealand rarely lose over here, so more pressure on them.
And the 24-year-old has warned to those writing Ireland off to do so at their peril.
"I think everybody is rooting us out straight away, we had a very good Six Nations and Autumn Tests. People can say what they want to say, we know what we need to do to get a win.
"There's great feeling around the group at the moment, so if everyone wants to write us off, that's great."
The Australia native returns to the starting team having had to sit out last week's 42-19 defeat in Auckland due to Covid-19, one of five players across both nations who was sidelined due to Covid for the opening Test.
And while he says he's fully primed now for his return to action, the effects of the virus were still lingering when he returned to training at the start of the week.
"I'm not going to lie, I struggled at first.
"My first couple of runs I was struggling big time, but came around quick and feel 100% now and back to normal."
While Hansen has grown to deal with the often wild weather conditions of Galway Bay and the Sportsground since his arrival last summer, tomorrow's venue should play to his natural strengths, with the game being played indoors at the 30,000 capacity Forsyth Barr Stadium, eliminating the cold and wet weather that will be expected in Dunedin.
"I think it's definitely a help for both teams, for good running rugby, we've got similar styles and like to keep the ball infield, so whenever you can play on a dry pitch it's just better for everyone for the spectacle.
"At the end of the day it's what you can control. All the errors, they feed off that. If we can bring those down it will make for a lot closer game. I thought last week isn't normally how we play, plenty of work-ons and plenty of learnings."
And after being held up over the line on five occasions in the first Test last week, Hansen says the main work-on is a simple one: touch the ball down over the line.
"That's the plan, isn't it?," he laughs.
"Our attack was pretty good last week, you rarely hear about getting held up five times, it's just the last bit we've to work on.
"We showed the attack is there, it's just about getting it down over the line."
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