RUGBY IRELAND v NEW ZEALAND:TRANSFERRED TO the hub of the city and back in the old familiar surrounds of the Shelbourne Hotel, the Ireland squad would have felt the tingle of anticipation heighten for tomorrow's encounter with some blokes dressed in black. Kick-off can't come soon enough now.

Not everything is a step back in time, however, and the prospect of playing the All Blacks not only offers a shot at making history but is a never-to-be-repeated opportunity to play the world's foremost rugby team in Croke Park. Every player who has worn the green jersey can feel a tad envious, for in the context of a one-off home game without a Grand Slam or championship at stake, only the encounter with England two years ago can better it in sheer scale.

Speaking in the team's more central base, Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton summed up the squad's mood. "I think there's an awareness that - outside the English game last time, which was a once-off, I guess - it is the biggest game in Ireland, in Croke Park against the number one ranked team. So there is a realisation that this is a really big game in Croke Park in front of a really big crowd and there's an opportunity to do the day justice."

As even the dogs in St Stephen's Green are no doubt acutely aware, Ireland have never beaten New Zealand, losing 20 and drawing one of the countries' meetings, dating back over 103 years. Eleven of those losses have been in Lansdowne Road but, of course, none have been in Croker. That might sound a bit Irish, but the change to a venue where Ireland has memories of one of the great days, could help remove some of that historical baggage.

While seeking to play down the venue's importance, and citing Lansdowne Road as a more intimate venue, McNaughton conceded that: "We've seen what the crowd can do, for instance in the England-Ireland game two years ago, when the crowd of 80,000 got really behind the team. I think that's what we're expecting and hoping for at an early stage in Croke Park. 80,000 is a big plus for us. It's the biggest stadium around. The crowd are going to get behind the team as they did against England in that emotional game two years ago."

Seeing the haka performed under the Croke Park floodlights will be something to behold, and as with the deferential respect afforded it at Lansdowne Road three years ago in the fall-out from Speargate, will assuredly be followed fairly swiftly by the first rendition of The Fields.

But, while a good start would be a decided help, McNaughton pointed out that in the last three meetings in New Zealand, "those games haven't been won in the first 10 minutes, they've been won in the last 10 minutes".

It helps, too, that the Saturday tea-time kick-off should re-invoke some of that unforgettable atmosphere for the English match as opposed to the low-key trio of Six Nations games last season - all of which were around lunchtime. "Even the teams in Ireland find that evening kick-offs work with Munster and work with Leinster, and they work for the supporters. I think the evening kick-offs for various reasons work better. People are all very happy around 5.15. Dunno why," he said, tongue-in-cheek.

No less than the players, defensive coach Les Kiss admits the management staff want to pit themselves against the world's best. "New Zealand have picked, I believe, a team that has the third most caps of any team they've ever selected, so they've obviously gone for a team with experience. There's a lot of depth; I think they understand the challenges ahead of them. I don't think that anyone in our whole group would expect anything less. We want to do the job and if we can do it against the best that they can offer, then even better."

Nor is there a more daunting task for a defensive coach than mapping out a strategy for dealing with the All Blacks. In the dozen games since their prolific World Cup, the All Blacks have scored 48 tries - exactly four per game - and have liberally dispersed them amongst 21 players.

Any wonder, therefore, that Kiss - who was defensive coach for the Springboks in '01 when they came across the All Blacks - plays down any attempt to individualise their threats.

"They aren't easy to analyse, because you have to look at so many players. That's why you rely on team defence, to understand what they can throw at you. They have a lot of threats across the park. It's about making sure you understand that.

"Every team has repetition in their threats, but it's the options they build off it. The reality is you can cover so much; the rest of it comes from the will of your group to be able to cover those options, and to be able to cover the surprise packages that come."

Interestingly, all four New Zealand tries against Scotland resulted from kicks, prompting Kiss to concede: "The aerial game is something they do rely on. They create their pressure through that type of game, and also trying to make a situation where the errors come from the opposition. They're very good at that."

Kiss wouldn't reveal whether defensive considerations were influential in some of the marginal calls at hooker, scrumhalf and full-back, but Tomás O'Leary, especially, looks like he was picked in part because of his physicality around the fringes and his ability to sweep effectively behind the threequarter line for those kicks.

When discussing the "multi-dimensional" threats that can be posed by individual players, whether it be "footwork, a kicking game and option taking" it was put to the Ireland defensive coach that maybe Dan Carter fitted that description, Kiss said: "Yeah, he's one."

Pausing and smiling faintly, he added: "And we've got a couple as well."