'They'll say it's game by game but it's not,' said the long-serving full-back who played in and lost three quarter-finals on the world stage
Striving to be the team that finally breaks through that World Cup quarter-final glass ceiling will weigh on Ireland's class of 2023 during the finals.Ireland's long-time full-back made his finals debut against France at Eden Park in New Zealand in 2011 - an "insane" game, he recalls, because of the noise generated by Ireland fans - and made his last Test appearance in the systems failure against the All Blacks at Tokyo Stadium in 2019.
"So immediately you know that it's a very tough challenge and listen, that quarter-final is the crux of this tournament for Ireland. "We just got blitzed by New Zealand in the quarter-final, but the Japan game is the one that hurts most because we had an incredibly good game plan that we had been working on for a long time to play against South Africa.
"But I do feel it's different. As a team, my impression is that they haven't plateaued or dipped yet - as was definitely the case in 2019. "If Ireland do get beaten in this World Cup it's going to be by a physically bigger, stronger team that just bullies them."
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