A series win would mark the most significant achievement by an Irish rugby side, dating back to the foundation of the IRFU in 1874. It really is that big.

In some ways it made the Irish victory all the sweeter even if we know there’s going to be a serious reaction from within the All Blacks camp

With the lessons from Auckland fully absorbed, we’re about to find out if this Irish side is as good as we like to think it is.

Despite playing some excellent rugby, Ireland found themselves 23 points in arrears as they trudged off the pitch at half-time. No team in the world could recover from that position, in Eden Park of all places.

With Tadhg Beirne short of game time and Iain Henderson out of commission, the time has come for James Ryan to lead the charge against the massively experienced All Black locking partnership of Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick

Despite Dupont's heroics for Toulouse, Johnny Sexton delivered his most complete performance in years with a direct hand in Leinster’s opening three tries

Everything Leinster have done since January has been geared towards arriving at this stage of the season in the best possible shape to atone for the disappointment of the last three years

In years to come, many of the young boys and girls in tears when Conor Murray and Ben Healy had the misfortune to miss their kicks in the dreaded penalty shootout, will relay to their own kids that they were in Lansdowne Road that day

Watching Limerick's beasts in green at the same venue last weekend left me wondering how they had escaped the clutches of Munster

My only reservation, apart from the fact that he’s never operated as head coach before, is that this doesn’t amount to an appointment of convenience as the only member of the existing coaching set up still in situ.