Irish must improve on historic All Blacks performance: Best
Ireland captain Rory Best called on his players to better the display in a historic victory over world champions New Zealand last year when they face France in the Six Nations at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. The 34-year-old hooker -- who will win his 102nd cap -- added the years of being intimidated by France were over because they now played French clubs so often in European competition. Best's recent record against them reflects a swing to the Irish as he has won three, drawn two and lost just one -- a controversial 10-9 reverse to France last year. However, he made no bones about what level of performance would be required of the hosts with the French improving markedly under Guy Noves. "Both teams have played two, won one, lost one. So both have their backs against the wall a little bit," said Best. "When you're playing the autumn internationals you want to win and it's important to win, but now we're in a competition, and while you want to win, you also feel you've got to win it. "So there's pressure that comes with that, and we know we have to respond. "And we know we have to produce a performance that I believe has to exceed the one we produced in Chicago (Ireland beating the All Blacks 40-29)." Best, who is one of the favourites to captain the British and Irish Lions team on their tour of New Zealand later this year, said the recent run of good results against the French came as much also from Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt instilling a different mentality into the squad. “We know them a lot better than we used to, but I just think there's a different mindset to playing for Ireland now than there was 12 years ago," said Best. "We firmly believe we can beat anyone on our day. "Over the last two to three years we've realised what consistency is, and it's not just consistency of performance on the pitch. "That comes from the consistency of our preparation throughout the week. "That's something that we've really driven hard, probably since Joe came in. "We always talked about wanting to be a consistent team, but we probably didn't know how to get there. Now we feel we do." Best, whose uninterrupted run of 51 successive Six Nations matches came to a halt because of illness against Italy last time out, said whilst victory was paramount to try and maintain some pressure on unbeaten table toppers England -- who play whipping boys Italy on Sunday -- Ireland must not put too much pressure on themselves. "You prepare to win the game, if you start to chase things and put too much pressure on yourself, and start talking about 'you have to win, you have to win', then there's a real problem that you might go within yourself a little," said Best. "We have to be able to go out and play, attack them with and without the ball. "We know how important this game is for us. "With that comes the pressure, but it doesn't need to build within the team environment. "The pressure of playing for Ireland, especially at home, is the greatest pressure you're going to get."
