Johnny Sexton says Ireland must play on their own terms when the world champions South Africa come to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
The opening game of the Bank of Ireland Nations Series sees Ireland host the Springboks for their first meeting in five years, and less than 12 months out from facing off in Pool B of the Rugby World Cup in France.
When the Springboks last came to Dublin in 2017, they were handsomely beaten 38-3, but a remarkable turnaround saw them defy the odds and win their third World Cup just two years later.
Ireland come into the game on top of the world rankings, courtesy of their series win in New Zealand in the summer, but Sexton says it counts for little when South Africa have the title that really matters.
"Honestly, it's not something we talk about that much. It's not a goal to become No 1 in the world," he said.
"That might sound stupid, in some sports it is, like golf or tennis but in rugby the rankings matter once, and it's like three years out from the World Cup when they matter, which doesn't make that much sense either.
"To be No 1 in the world, you need to win the World Cup, that's where the goals are.
"I don't think too many teams read too much into it, I know the other teams will probably refer to us now [as world No 1], trying to put pressure on us, but we don't speak about it."
While South Africa were inconsistent during the Rugby Championship earlier this year, they bring with them a pack unlike any Ireland have faced in Andy Farrell's time in charge, with the now famous 'Bomb Squad' in reserve on the replacements bench.
And Sexton says Ireland have to be prepared to play the game on their own terms, rather than getting sucked into an arm-wrestle.
"Obviously we have to give them the respect that they absolutely deserve," he said. "They're the best team in the world, in terms of they are world champions.
"They're a top-class team. They've obviously won the World Cup, they beat the Lions and had some big results over the last few years so in terms of testing ourselves it's huge.
"How we can get a result? We need to bring our game and make sure we do it even better because when you have a couple of results like we did in the summer teams start properly look at you and they go, 'how are we going to mess up this Ireland team? How are we combat this?'
"We've got to do it better and we've got to evolve a little bit and make sure we bring something new to the table."
The Ireland captain will line out opposite Damian Willemse in the 10 shirt on Saturday, with the Stormers back fast becoming one of the most well-rounded and versatile players in the game.
And Sexton says while he's only had limited exposure at out-half in the Test game, he's a player they have to be wary of.
"He's a very good player. He's only played a couple of games at 10 for South Africa but he's unpredictable.
"He's got fantastic footwork, he has a good kicking game, he's strong, he's fast obviously. Some traits that you wouldn't normally associate with a 10 but he's an excellent player, a person we're going to have to be ready to play, but we expected him to be named at 10 so we've done a little bit of analysis on him, and we need to do a little bit more again."
Head coach Jacques Nienaber has also included Cheslin Kolbe at full-back in an interesting move, with he and Kurt-Lee Arensde giving them some incredibly elusive speed in their back three, behind what is a traditionally strong pack of forwards.
"Well the South African DNA, it’s unbelievably strong up front, strong set-piece, they base the majority of their game off that. Good kicking game, good in the air but they’re also not afraid to play when it’s on and they’re not afraid to go wide-wide.
"They’ve picked an exciting backline, a backline they probably haven’t had the luxury of picking so far with injuries and suspensions and stuff. So to bring Kolbe back, Arendse on the right wing, they’re almost like duplicates of each other so we’ve got double threats there.
"So they’ve top quality players across the park but they build their game on strong set-piece, strong kicking game, pressure. They’re pretty well-rounded."
With Ireland 'A' also in action this week versus an All Blacks XV on Friday, head coach Andy Farrell has been preparing two separate squads for games within a 24-hour spell.
Bundee Aki (above) and Iain Henderson, who missed out on the original squad due to suspension and injury respectively, were also pictured at Tuesday's training session in Dublin, bringing the number of players involved to 51.
"We were almost rotating as teams, and we were almost four teams at the start, into two, and it was good. It was different," the captain added.
"It’s a unique week. We had a unique experience in the summer and now we’ve got another one now with two matches going on, a big game Friday night and then a big game Saturday. So it’s good, it’s what we want.
"We don’t want anything to be the same because you get comfortable then and then come the World Cup you’re not ready for anything changing. So we’re testing ourselves and trying not to keep things too familiar."
Follow a live blog on Ireland v South Africa on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app this Saturday from 5pm with live radio commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
