Before the Ireland squad went their separate ways after their Nations Championship campaign closed out in New Zealand, Andy Farrell put a date in his players' diaries.

An alignment camp on 31 August saw roughly 50 players brought in to Irish Rugby's high-performance centre in Dublin, a one-day gathering of those both in and around the wider Irish squad, to set their stall out for a World Cup year, while a fitness test gauges how well they had summered.

In the changing room at Eden Park after Ireland's defeat to the All Blacks, Farrell told the group to turn up for session "in the right condition, ready to attack the season".

"Most of the guys did that and put their best foot forward in that regard," Johnny Sexton says.

The message from Farrell, according to Sexton, was clear: "It's time to ship up, get shape up, and get our act together."

This time next year, Farrell and his squad will expect to be a few days out from another World Cup quarter-final.

If they are to be among the contenders, there is ground to be made up on world champions South Africa, as well as France and New Zealand.

And in order to do that, they want to make aerobic fitness their super strength.

"That was a big thing," Sexton (above) added, as he expanded on the alignment camp in August.

"Over the years, again, we talk about the recent years, I think we have been up there with the fittest teams in the world, and we dictated the pace of the game, and we just feel we need to get back to that.

"We're never going to be the biggest, strongest team. Okay, we've made huge strides in that over the years, and we do have a great-sized pack, and they're powerful boys.

"But we need to make our fitness and the way we play the game our point of difference, because that's how we're going to be successful."

They ended their summer with a 40-21 defeat to the All Blacks in Auckland, the sixth time in a row they have lost to one of that trio by double-digits.

That loss at Eden Park leaves Ireland fourth in the northern section of the new Nations Championship table, a campaign which Sexton admitted was "up and down".

But with games against Argentina, Fiji and South Africa to come before a finals weekend at Twickenham, where they still believe they can go and become this tournament's first ever winners.

"We want to win the next three games and be in the final in Twickenham. It's a results business, this, isn't it?

"But at the same time, we've got a World Cup in 12 months, and we obviously need to see certain people play, and we need to give people chances and all those.

"We need to build a consistency now over the next 12 months that'll allow us to say that we're going to Australia to do something special."

Ultimately, Ireland's Nations Championship results won't fully be judged until this time next year.

"We've got a bit of work to do," stressed Sexton. "We've acknowledged that as a player group and a coaching group, and we've said that we need to catch up a little bit.

"But sometimes maybe that's a better place to be in rather than half favourites one year out from the World Cup.

"So, look, it all comes down to the actual World Cup itself. South Africa, over the last two times they won it, I don't think they've come in with outstanding form. You know what I mean? They had inconsistent form, but they turned up and they produced when it mattered."