Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning Cantwell spoke of the preparation and analysis before the match that gave them that confidence.

Ireland's Lynne Cantwell

“The analysis that we do on teams is really really incredible, it is second-to-none,” she told Ivan Yates.

“We went in to the New Zealand game fully confident that we were going to win, because we had our strategy and we had them decoded completely.”

She revealed their planning extended to different times of the game - that the players had prepared what to do at different times during the match.

“At 76 minutes I looked at the clock and said, okay, we need to go into our closing strategy,”said the Irish centre. “We need to just keep hold of possession and keep ball and get to the 80 minutes.”

She said they were overjoyed at the result and almost in a state of shock: “Half of you didn’t want to sleep, you were afraid of waking up and it had been a dream.”

But Cantwell said they have now put this result aside and are focused on the next, adding, “We are back to what we are here for now today.”

The side face Kazakhstan on Saturday knowing a win will give them a semi-final place and they are already preparing for that match as they had for the New Zealand game.

“The same for Kazakhstan,” confirmed Cantwell. “Today is a recovery day, we’ll sit down tomorrow morning and review our game and then straightaway to Kazakhstan.”

She continued: “The same will apply if we get to the semi-finals, we will do the exact same thing. So I have full belief that whoever we come up against we will do the exact same thing and will be able to do it.“

Asked by Yates if she felt they could now go all the way Cantwell was totally certain in her response.

“Absolutely, I have no doubt whatsoever in our ability.”

Ireland face Kazakhstan at noon on Saturday and the match will be live on TG4.