Johnny Sexton has questioned the “strange” negativity around Ireland’s World Cup campaign, insisting Joe Schmidt’s men are ready to peak for the All Blacks.

British and Irish Lions fly-half Sexton insisted Ireland always knew Japan’s quality ahead of their 19-12 Pool A loss to the tournament hosts.

The Brave Blossoms beat Scotland 28-21 on Sunday to tee up a quarter-final clash with South Africa, handing the Irish a last-eight battle with back-to-back world champions New Zealand in Tokyo on Saturday.

Leinster star Sexton hopes Ireland have already shaken their typical World Cup quarter-final performance “out of our system” with that surprise loss to Japan – and now called on his side to produce one of their best-ever performances against the All Blacks.

“We’ve been building pretty well apart from that poor 60 minutes against Japan; everything else has pretty much gone to plan,” said Sexton.

“There’s been some negativity around us and we feel that’s been pretty strange.

“But we’re really confident in how we’re building. We’d like to be playing a bit better in some regards at times, but hopefully we can put that performance out there on Saturday.

“We’re very self-critical in terms of our performances and obviously after the Japan game we would have liked to have done things differently.

“But we knew how good a team Japan were, so we always knew that would happen if we didn’t play well, and it did happen.

“So I think looking at the Scotland game last night, Japan were excellent again. They have been through the whole tournament.

“They were clinical with the ball, every time Scotland gave them the ball they seemed to hold it for 20 or 30 phases.

“It was pretty impressive, so I’m sure they will go on and really worry South Africa.”

Ireland’s failure to launch past a World Cup quarter-final has become a millstone around the team’s neck.

Now Kiwi boss Schmidt has the chance for another history-making achievement, should he guide Ireland past his homeland and into a maiden World Cup semi-final.

Ireland lost 22-10 to Wales in the 2011 quarter-finals, before Schmidt’s injury-ravaged men were thumped 43-20 by Argentina in Cardiff four years ago.

Sexton therefore hopes Ireland’s defeat to Japan will prove their main aberration for this competition, especially as Schmidt’s side this time approach the knockout phases with a clean bill of health.