Kidney is well aware of the task facing his side against the All Blacks at Croke Park ©

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Players/Officials: Declan Kidney

Teams: Ireland

Declan Kidney believes Ireland will face the "Tiger Woods" of rugby in Saturday's clash with New Zealand at Croke Park.

The All Blacks suffered a major player exodus after last year's World Cup with hardened internationals such as Aaron Mauger, Chris Jack, Doug Howlett and Carl Hayman moving to the northern hemisphere. Kidney has been impressed by the way they have coped with the loss of so many influential Test stars as they went on to win this year's Tri-Nations.

Key players Richie McCaw and Dan Carter remain and have been selected in a first-choice All Blacks side for the second leg of their Grand Slam tour. "New Zealand are the Tiger Woods of world rugby - they're the level that every team compares themselves to," he said. "They're an extremely good side. A number of players left their shores but they didn't panic, instead bringing in a lot of guys.

"Supposedly they picked their second team against Scotland but look what they did (they won 32-6). It just underlines the strength of their squad. Thankfully they're only able to pick 22. They have huge experience. They've stated they want to complete a Grand Slam tour and they started extremely well against Scotland.

"The spirit in their squad is massive and this is probably the toughest time to play them because they're going for the Grand Slam. We have to do something that hasn't been done before and we're under no illusions as to the size of the task.

"It's as difficult as it gets but that's what top level sport is all about."

Ireland opened life under Kidney with a routine 55-0 demolition of a poor Canada at Thomond Park last Saturday. The former Munster coach is hoping to develop a bigger squad but admits he did not glean too much new information against the hopeless Canadians.

"We didn't perform as well as we'd like in the third quarter against Canada but had a great bench, and when they got into the match we finished strongly," he said. "The fact we held them scoreless meant it was a good day for us.

"We haven't read too much into the result because Canada are a young, developing team. We had an advantage in that respect. But we wish the game had been a little bit closer so I could have found out a few things, but I'd take a 55-0 against the All Blacks."