All Blacks: We had to make 276 tackles, and 100 of those were in the last quarter

New Zealand thoughts must turn now to dealing with raging hot semi-final favouritism against Argentina - but they haven't got the buzz of beating Ireland out of their system yet

New Zealand's assistant coach Scott McLeod.

The All Blacks are desperate to avoid any repeat of their disappointing 2019 experience in next Friday's World Cup semi-final against Argentina, defence coach Scott McLeod said Sunday.

Four years ago, New Zealand romped in to the last four with an emphatic 46-14 victory over Ireland only to be caught cold by a brilliant England performance and come a cropper a week later in Yokohama.

Saturday's win over Ireland was by a narrower margin but no less confidence-boosting and McLeod said the All Blacks were determined to get their preparations right for the meeting with the Pumas back at the Stade de France.

"I thought last week our detail, our energy and our focus was top class and it gave the players confidence to go out and execute that under pressure," McLeod told reporters. "In 2019, we didn't do that as well in our week leading into England, and it's not necessarily the opposition it's just the quality of what we put into the week.

"Our captain Kieran Read couldn't train and there were disruptions. So we have to make sure that we don't have those disruptions and we build the week with the quality and the focus that we did last week.

"And we respect Argentina, they are a different beast to Ireland and we will slowly build the week. We have to get excited about that and we will."

Argentina beat the All Blacks for the first time in Sydney in the 2020 Rugby Championship and repeated the feat last year on New Zealand soil in Christchurch.

McLeod said he thought the Pumas would have taken great confidence from coming from behind on Saturday to overcome Wales in their quarter-final.

There was no disguising, however, that McLeod had not yet put Saturday's match to bed as he reflected on the defensive effort that held out the Irish through 37 phases at the end of a thrilling contest.

"We had to make 276 tackles last night and 100 of those were in the last quarter," he said. "The most we've had to attempt before in this tournament was 137 against Italy so there's a huge amount of care and there's a huge amount of Kiwi ticker, if you like, that we wanted to get the job done."

Tte dramatic win over Ireland was founded on four years of "adversity and hurt", former All Blacks said Sunday.

Many pundits had forecast victory for Andy Farrell's side and Ian Foster and captain Sam Cane had absorbed plenty of criticism after poor results last year before their side arrived at the World Cup ranked fourth in the world.

However, former All Blacks greats Mils Muliaina and John Kirwan said Sunday that Cane and Foster deserved praise for the fighting nature of the victory.

"All the adversity and hurt. You've got to go through some of that to come out and perform the way they did today," Muliaina told Sky.

"The desperation that they showed at the end there, they stayed connected and they believed.

"For Sam Cane, for all that he's been through, and Ian Foster, they've been through hard times and they've turned that around into something special."

New Zealand captain Cane was majestic in the win over Ireland. Kirwan described the injury-plagued flanker's display as "epic", noting how the captain led from the front when New Zealand were twice reduced to 14 men by yellow cards.

"We were way more physical than they were and it started with Sam Cane," Kirwan told Sky. "Ireland were outstanding right to the death but even with the yellow cards, our guys stayed calm, they stayed disciplined. This team's come together, they're peaking at the right time and they showed incredible courage."

The New Zealand Herald described the quarter-final as "one of the great World Cup Tests".

Another of their headlines said the maligned side had "answered their moment of truth with an astonishing win".

While Ireland's performance was widely praised, Kirwan offered a stark assessment of Irish failure to advance past the quarter-finals for the eighth time in eight attempts.

"If you can't get the monkey off your back, it turns into a gorilla," he said. "It's now a gorilla for them. You carry the weight of expectation on your shoulders and it just gets really tough."