Fiji boss Mick Byrne says his side are fully expecting Ireland to respond to Andy Farrell's challenge after an underwhelming start to their Autumn Nations Series.
The Six Nations champions followed up a 23-13 defeat to New Zealand with a 22-19 victory over Argentina but had to hold on at the death to avoid a second home loss in a row.
Byrne, an Australian native who was part of the Leinster coaching team under Matt Williams in 2002-03, was also part of the All Blacks set-up when they won back to back World Cups in 2011 and 2015.
"I think, you know, Andy wasn’t happy," said Byrne, whose side have never beaten Ireland in five previous meetings.
"Publicly he wants to see a big improvement. So we have to be ready for that."
Ireland went into the game against New Zealand as favourites but struggled to find any rhythm among 13 penalty concessions and 21 handling errors.
"The All Blacks are starting to find their way, just starting to find their best team," added Byrne, a former Melbourne, Hawthorn and Sydney Swans Aussie Rules player.
"They are always going to be a hard team to beat. Under a new coaching regime, new coaches, they’re going to take a bit to find their way; but it's a bit like Australia, you know, they're finding their way as well under a new coaching regime.
"So, I think it's there's a little bit of not so much what Ireland did, bit more what their opposition did.
"I thought Argentina were passionate and defended really well. There was a lot of scrambling, Ireland asked a lot of questions of Argentina and they answered a lot of them.
"Argentina were in good form and Ireland did enough to win, so they’re primed for this weekend and we have to be ready for them."
Byrne joined the Flying Fijians in 2021 and took over the head coach role last year.
They are ranked ninth in the world and come into tomorrow’s game off the back of wins over Spain and Wales.
"For us our growth comes from being able to look at the opposition and see what they're going to bring and prepare ourselves accordingly," the 65-year-old, who had coaching spells with Australia, South Africa and Japan, said.
"I think for us to be the team that we want to be moving forward at this level, we have to take into account who we're playing and what they're going to bring.
"There may be times in the past where [it would be] 'let's just focus on ourselves and get ourselves right', but to be a Tier 1 team, you need to play against some of the best of the world, you need to have a look at what they're doing.
"And you need to be able to analyse the opposition, maybe anaylse what you need to do and what you need to be aware of."
Asked about his Irish roots, Byrne, known as 'Mick the Kick’, name-checked Wicklow and said he was looking forward to catching up with some old friends.
"The thing about the Irish is that you might not see each other for 20 years but it is like we just saw each other last week," he said.
"I’m looking forward to catching up with some familiar faces on Saturday. It was great times and just being here again brings back those memories."
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