• Joe Schmidt’s side beat All Blacks in the US in 2016 • Captain Best says injuries will not have big impact

Rory Best is confident Ireland can repeat their history-making efforts in Chicago by claiming a maiden win over New Zealand on home soil despite suffering more late injury dramas.

Already without the Lions flanker Sean O’Brien, who broke his arm against Argentina last week, Ireland suffered another major setback on the eve of the match with the loose forward Dan Leavy ruled out. Leavy’s absence adds to a growing injury list which includes O’Brien, the influential half-back Conor Murray and Robbie Henshaw.

The Ireland coach, Joe Schmidt, has been forced to promote Leinster’s Josh van der Flier, his third-choice openside, with Ulster’s Jordi Murphy coming on to the bench.

Schmidt’s Ireland sense All Blacks scalp as world’s best brace for collision Read more

“It doesn’t really impact things massively because you’re replacing a quality player with two more quality players,” Best, Ireland’s captain, said.

Prior to Chicago, Ireland had never beaten the All Blacks; one draw in Dublin in 1973 their previous best effort in a run of 29 failed attempts.

On another occasion Ireland fell three points short in Dunedin in 1992, and one very ugly Dan Carter dropped goal saved the All Blacks from a shock loss in Christchurch at the start of Steve Hansen’s tenure.

Many Irish greats – Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Keith Wood, Peter Stringer, Tommy Bowe and Willie John McBride among them – never savoured success against the All Blacks.

Best, however, is one of five returning starters who finally ended the hoodoo in Chicago. “When you achieve something that is history, that no other side has ever done, it is special,” Best said. “The big monkey for us was to get that win two years ago.

Ireland's Joe Schmidt expects ‘spiky’ All Blacks encounter to decide world’s best Read more

“It was a fantastic performance. When you take a second to think about all the world-class players that have played for Ireland and never achieved what the 23 in Chicago did that’s when you get the goosebumps and realise how big an achievement it was. I think we have improved since then.”

That may be true of the Six Nations champions but, as Best can attest, one victory does not erase all painful memories. The heartbreaking manner of the 2013 defeat in Dublin, when the All Blacks scored a stunning 82nd minute match-winning try, serves as a vivid reminder of just how dangerous Hansen’s men can be.

“We’d been close in 2013 and at that stage I was off the pitch but you just know when they got within a score they can go from anywhere as we’ve seen in the Rugby Championship and we’d seen before that,” Best said. “For us we feel when we perform we can beat anyone. We have a pretty good record here it’s a place we love playing. We know the atmosphere is going to be big; it’s going to be electric.

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“We’ve been trying to distance ourselves but it’s been hard to get away from the past four, six months. This is all anyone has wanted to talk about and it’s finally here. Last Saturday night, early Sunday morning, you could finally talk about this game because it was our next game.”

Schmidt on Friday predicted another “spiky” encounter filled with brutal physicality and while the All Blacks captain, Kieran Read, spoke about the importance of adopting patience, he did not shy away from the need to dominate collisions.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of emotion, a lot of heat out here, which is what you want to see when two big teams come up against each other,” Read said. “Physicality and intensity wins Test matches so we’re going to have to be right up there in that area.

“The Irish are undoubtedly the best side up here at the moment and for us to challenge ourselves in their conditions is an exciting time. We’re going to need the best performance of our season the way the Irish have been playing. I know we’ve prepared as well as we can so we’ll give it our all.”