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Best: Big one-off Ireland performances aren't acceptable

Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Ireland captain Rory Best insists big one-off performances, that are not backed up, are no longer good enough for Joe Schmidt's side on the eve of their rematch with New Zealand.

Ireland ended their 111-year wait for a maiden victory over the All Blacks with the 40-29 win in Chicago on November 5, and are now primed for a furious backlash in Dublin on Saturday.

Best knows full well the anger the back-to-back world champions will throw into their Dublin revenge mission - and has challenged his side to scale new heights in performance to pull off another victory.

"This week we'll need a performance that's up there with the best we've ever produced in an Ireland shirt," said Best, who will win his 99th Test cap this weekend.

"It's about us being consistent with our performance levels, that's the most important element. Big one-off performances and then a drop-off isn't acceptable any more with this group of players."

New Zealand have been able to summon fit-again lock duo Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock for the Dublin showdown. Retallick has recovered from concussion while Whitelock has finally beaten ankle trouble, to allow the All Blacks to restore one of the game's most potent double acts.

Best accepts that Ireland must raise their set-piece work even higher than in Chicago in order to counter the influence of New Zealand's all-new second row pairing.

"They are going to be hurting a little bit and they will come after us there, in the set-piece," said Best. "We looked back on Chicago and we were fairly hard on the defensive elements in our performance.

"(Defence coach) Andy Farrell expects us to go out and deliver. He's focused on our systems and how we stop these tries. For us we looked back at some of the scores, some of the breaks, there's a lot of improvements we can make in our systems.

"We've had three weeks together now so we should be better than we were in Chicago. Defensively we should be better and we need to be better."