With Joe Schmidt now coaching Australia, Ireland climbed to the No1 world ranking during a long stint as its coach.
Now, former Crusaders assistant coach Andrew Goodman is starting as part of Ireland's coaching group.
He had five years working with coach Scott Robertson at the Christchurch-based Super Rugby franchise and had a lengthy career with Tasman.
Goodman has replaced former England international Mike Catt and has been with Ireland since their July tour to South Africa as an observer, stepping into his full-time role ahead of this November series.
He told the Irish Examiner, "Razor [Robertson] was a big mentor to me. He gave me my opportunity at the Crusaders, and he's someone I learned a great deal from, so I've got huge respect for Razor and his coaching group. I've worked alongside all of them. It's going to be great to go to battle with them.
"It works both ways: they know me well also.
"There's little things you'll look to maybe think about how they might do different areas of the game, or what they might bring, but it's Test rugby, it's a different level to what we were playing in Super Rugby in New Zealand.
"It was a different game. It has moved on and evolved a lot over the last couple of years.
"Ireland is doing a lot of great things through the attack side of the game, and I've come in to assist. I've got to evolve the game. Hopefully, little bits of what we're training and doing every day will start to come through from this test match on.
"I won't say too much more than that, but you'll be able to see the proof in the games as they come up over the November series.
Goodman said that although he retired from playing, his former first five-eighths, Johnny Sexton, was in with the group and worked with his replacements in the squad.
"We have three tens relatively inexperienced at Test level, so to have someone with 120-plus caps to come in and sit down with them and talk through scenarios is going to be massive. He will add a lot to the coaching group as well with that experience."