Andy Farrell predicts that Ireland must perform at a level above what they have produced so far under his guidance when they travel to New Zealand.
Ireland are to face the All Blacks in a three Test tour - with two midweek games against the Maori All Blacks tacked on for good measure - and with that in mind, head coach Farrell today named a 40 man squad for next week's trip.
Asked where Ireland need to be to come away with at least a first ever Test match win on Kiwi soil, Farrell responded: "Where we've not been before, that's the fact.
"Our last performance against them, or any good performance you've seen over the last 18 months to two years, we need to be better than that.
"It's different over there, and that's why touring for these lads is so important. We've missed it. We've lads on over 20 caps that have never toured.
"Walking around Auckland or Wellington or Dunedin, it's not like walking down Ballsbridge and people winding the window down and saying how good you are.
"This is completely different. This is proper international rugby that doesn't get any better and it's exactly what we want at this point in time."
Farrell has selected five uncapped players - Leinster trio Ciaran Frawley, Joe McCarthy and Jimmy O'Brien, Connacht's Cian Prendergast and Munster's Jeremy Loughman.
But Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher, Munster pair Andrew Conway and Chris Farrell and Ulster's Robert Baloucoune miss out through injury.
Baloucoune, Farrell revealed, will be out for four to six weeks as he recovers from a hip muscle issue.
"We had Rob in yesterday and we were waiting on the results of that," explained Farrell.
"Gutted for him, absolutely, but gutted for ourselves as coaches as well because this is the type of tour that's made for people like Rob to show his worth on the big stage, and that's what the tour is all about.
"This is the start of our World Cup campaign and we want players like Rob involved in that process."
There has been a lot of commentary about Farrell's frontliners in the wake of the provinces' recent defeats - in particular the Leinster losses in the Champions Cup final and URC semi-final to power-packed opponents, given the large amount of players that the Blues supply to Ireland's starting line-up.
"A lot gets said about Ireland and are they playing like Munster, are they playing like Leinster, are they playing like Ulster etc," said Farrell.
"We're Ireland, we're our own team, you know?
"We play our own way and we've come up against big teams before and been unbelievably physical.
"Physicality is not just about fronting up, it's how you play the game and how you get opportunities to create space to be able to get over the gainline and be able to be aggressive in the right parts of the game.
"I think we've done pretty well of late in that type of scenario, so no, it doesn't affect us at all."
Pressed further on whether the provinces' respective Champions Cup and URC disappointments could have a knock-on effect, Farrell replied: "We'll see.
"But what this three day camp is making sure that we get cohesive, that we start enjoying each other's company and the relationships that we've built, we need to build them even stronger in the next four weeks.
"You can look at it both ways. If Leinster and Ulster were to have both played in the (URC) final (this weekend), you could say that they got game time and are match fit etc, or you could say well listen, we've got the players now, we've got a three-day camp, we're a little bit ahead of the curve getting onto the plane and we've got a fit squad.
"So I suppose you can take it either way."
Farrell added: "We're delighted, we're so excited about taking this squad as a group of 40 to probably the hardest place in world rugby to go to, and find out about ourselves.
"This is a historic tour that will probably never be done again, certainly with how we've structured the tour.
"Maybe Ireland will never get to play a three-game Test series out there again.
"This is the ultimate, we're talking about building now towards a World Cup, what you want to do in those type of circumstances is test yourself.
"And it doesn't get any tougher than coming to New Zealand and playing in their backyard for three Test matches."
