It was the cruellest of blows for the new boss, just three games into his international coaching career but also the catalyst for the unprecedented success that has followed for Ireland on his watch.

None more so than for the two victories over the All Blacks, in Chicago in November 2016 and Dublin two years after that.

Former Ireland flanker Simon Easterby was still coaching the Scarlets in 2013 but was Ireland’s forwards coach by the following summer as a replacement for John Plumtree, and in his five years on Schmidt’s coaching ticket has seen the Ireland squad develop into a unit that can beat the world’s best on a more consistent basis.

“I guess they got so close, I wasn’t involved, in 2013 and unfortunately came off second best late in the game but I think the group as a whole have grown the past couple of years,” Easterby said yesterday.

As a team, we were often gallant losers in my time as a player, we pushed teams close every now and then. We had the odd maybe two or three or four-game winning streak against the top sides and then maybe we’d fall over.

“But I think the consistency that Joe has brought over the last five or six seasons and the confidence he has brought, not just to beat the likes of the All Blacks but to go to South Africa, to go to Australia and win a series, to win Championships, to win a Grand Slam, the confidence that the group has with the game plan, the confidence that they have in Andy (Farrell’s) defence, I think there is a combination of different things that have come together.”

The secret will be putting them together to beat New Zealand this Saturday in a World Cup quarter-final at Tokyo Stadium.

“A lot of them all have to come together at the same time, and sometimes when you don’t quite get everything right then sometimes we’re not good enough. I think we’ve seen that as well. So we have to be at our best or close to our best on Saturday and if we are then we’ll push them all the way.

“I think they know that, but we also have to be wary of the threats that they bring, and Joe is across all of that detail, across our mindset and our understanding of what it takes to beat a time like the All Blacks and I think that filters through the group as we go through the week and I think the confidence that we gain from has been shown in a couple of performances that we’ve had against them.”

With Schmidt set to stand down as head coach at the end of Ireland’s World Cup campaign, to be replaced by defence coach Farrell, the advent of the knockout stages in Japan means the Ireland team are not only in win or go home territory but also potentially heading into their final game under the New Zealander.

The same applies to captain Rory Best who is set to retire at the end of the tournament while scrum-coach Greg Feek is also leaving the management team to commit full-time as an assistant coach at his Japanese club NEC Green Rockets.

Easterby was yesterday asked whether those pending departures could serve as motivation for Ireland this weekend.

“I don’t think we’d be thinking about that,” he replied. “It’s the first time I’ve thought about it when you mention it. There’s lots of guys have their own way of motivating themselves and have different reasons.

“This group has been challenged in lots of different ways in the last couple of months, they’ve been challenged by you guys (the media) and more importantly they’ve been challenged by themselves to keep improving, keep pushing and I don’t think they’ll need any extra motivation this weekend, it doesn’t get any bigger at this stage for us than a World Cup quarter-final against the All Blacks.

“My answer to the question is no we don’t need any extra motivation.”