The momentum of Ireland's tour has shifted dramatically in recent days.

Less then a week ago, the fears of Ireland being whitewashed across their five matches - let alone just the Test matches - seemed real, but after last week's stunning win against New Zealand in Dunedin, the second-stringers produced a much improved display to get the better of the Maori All Blacks in difficult conditions in Wellington.

It leaves Andy Farrell's side in a great place heading into Saturday's Test series decider at the Cake Tin in Wellington, the same venue as yesterday's win against the Maori.

With Peter O'Mahony clearing his HIA, the Munster flanker looks certain to retain his place in the side, leaving the injured Garry Ringrose as the only player unavailable, with his place likely to be taken by Bundee Aki.

Farrell will name his side for the Test match in the early hours of Saturday morning, and his use of the bench in yesterday's Maori clash would give string indications as to how he's likely to select his matchday squad for the weekend.

While Gavin Coombes was towering throughout, the fact he played the full 80 minutes with Jack Conan an unused replacement would strongly hint at the Leinster man being the back row sub on Saturday, while Kieran Treadwell will almost certainly feature on the replacements once again.

The Ulster lock was arguably the best player on the pitch in his 57 minutes yesterday, and the timing of his removal would strongly suggest we'll see him in the 19 shirt again on Saturday.

"The team hasn't been announced yet, but we're looking forward to it, and whatever happens in whatever area, whether we're playing or in the squad, it's going to be a massive squad effort," Treadwell told RTÉ Sport after the 30-24 win.

"We'll pull together here, have a good session on Thursday and really get the ball rolling and hopefully we can stick to winning ways."

Saturday's game will be back at Sky Stadium in Wellington, where Ireland had to endure some bleak weather conditions, which led to plenty of handling errors on the Maori All Blacks side.

And while Ireland's main struggles with the weather came at the lineout, their handling in open play was quite good, considering the wind and rain.

"It was a proper game of rugby," the second row added.

"It was good to get a win like that especially after the loss we had in the first week. It's good to see how far we've come together as a group.

"It's definitely one for the lovers of the game, that sort of tight, hard physical sort of game. It was a good one to see who is really up for it, and you could see from every single player in the team, they were flying into it and wanted to win."

And having played so poorly in their previous midweek defeat to the Maori, the 26-year-old says it's a positive reflection on the work done behind the scenes.

"It's quite impressive. It's only 13 days from the last game we had, so it was good to see how far we've come together as a group, and we built that cohesion together. It's really impressive, especially with the young boys coming in there, stepping into the leadership roles like Ciaran Frawley, Joe McCarthy, Cian Prendergast to name a few, but there are so many boys in there who have stepped up to the plate.

"We worked on a few things and it's obviously quite tough because you have to go Test to Maori, to Test, to Maori. It's tough work, and to find those windows to make sure you nail your role is massive. The effort starts days before the actual match."

Attention now turns to the mouth-watering series decider against the All Blacks on Saturday morning, and Treadwell says Ireland only have one thing on their mind.

"If you're in sport you want to win, that's what you want to do. I go out there to win, that's what I want to do. It tastes good.

"It's a great track out there, especially for the brand of rugby we want to play. It's a good stage, and it's a historic stadium, we're looking forward to it."

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