Peter O'Mahony wants Ireland to emulate the All Blacks and embrace the favourites tag.
New Zealand have been world number one 75% of the time since the rankings were introduced in 2003 and won the Webb Ellis Cup twice when favourites, in 2011 and 2015.
Ireland, under Joe Schmidt, reached world number one at the end of 2018 but failed to build upon that with poor Six Nations and Rugby World Cup tournaments in the following year.
Andy Farrell’s charges are now back on top of the table and it’s something that O’Mahony insists the players are better able to deal with this time.
While not front and centre throughout the campaign, the Grand Slam, which would be just Ireland’s fourth in their history, was not a forbidden subject.
"It is not banned," said the 33-year-old, ahead of Saturday's Guinness Six Nations clash with England.
"I know where [the question is] coming from, I suppose in other teams we would have tried to keep it under the rug.
"The favourites tag, the number one in the world tag; these are things the best teams that we’ve looked at [embrace].
"You look at the All Blacks, they walk into these things and face them. That’s what we are trying to learn to do.
"At the same time you’ve got to back that up with performances. There’s no point in walking into things and not performing well
"Our goal is to put our best foot forward every Saturday we go out and it’s no different this weekend."
Ireland have a 79.4% win rate under Farrell, with 27 wins in 34 games, since taking over at the end of 2019.
O’Mahony, set to win his 94th cap in Dublin on Saturday, has hailed the impact of the head coach, who has hammered home the message of rising up to various challenges.
"Look, Andy has put us in different scenarios lots and lots of times over the last three years," said the Munster back row.
"You go back to all those experiences and be it New Zealand, be it last year's Six Nations, having to navigate through things.
"Covid, even the first Test in New Zealand, guys coming in, guys coming out, even this Six Nations we've had late pull-outs in Wales and that kind of thing, it's just part of rugby and Andy's thought on it is you roll with the punches.
"These things happen and you've got to get on with it, and I think we've built a squad now and an extended squad that no matter what goes wrong, guys can step in and get the job done."
Off the back of a record defeat at home to France, England stand between Ireland a first ever Guinness Six Nations clinched on home soil but O’Mahony, who captained the Lions in 2017, was on message with the theme that Steve Borthwick’s side have no choice but to react.
"Yeah, I’m not buying it," he bristled at the widespread predictions that Ireland will win quite comfortably.
"I’ve been lucky enough to play alongside a big chunk of that English team and I know how proud they are.
"I know how proud they are to play with their country.
"I know what quality of player they are, quality of person they are and how important it would be for them to put on a performance for themselves more than anyone, to show themselves the potential that I certainly know they have, but that’s the challenge for us.
"We’re expecting the best version of those English boys to come to the Aviva on Saturday and to perform and to do that we know we’ve got to be at our very best so I’m certainly not buying that."
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