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All Blacks revenge comments didn't go unnoticed in Ireland camp
By PA
Ireland captain Johnny Sexton is braced to face a wounded All Blacks side plotting revenge in a mouthwatering Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
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Andy Farrell’s men have topped the Test rankings since securing a landmark tour success against the New Zealand last summer.
Ireland set up another meeting with the three-time world champions by dismantling Scotland 36-14 on Saturday evening in Paris to win Pool B ahead of South Africa.
“They’ve already said it’s one that they want and when they’re hurting and they want to put it right, that’s the biggest challenge in rugby, to try and beat them when they’re in that frame of mind,” Sexton said of New Zealand.
“Two teams will both be under pressure for different reasons and it will be who copes with that the best and who can put their game out there on the biggest day when the pressure is on.
“We’ve played New Zealand plenty of times and they’ve come into some good form themselves over the last few weeks.
“It’s going to be a hell of a game and we just need to prepare right over the next few days and get the best performance we can out there.
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“We need to be ready for it.”
Fly-half Sexton, who is due to retire after the tournament, prolonged his career by at least one more week by leading his country to a thumping Stade de France success which eliminated Scotland.
Ireland emphatically banished any fears of suffering their own early exit thanks to first-half tries from James Lowe and Iain Henderson, plus Hugo Keenan’s double, before Dan Sheehan and Garry Ringrose added to the Scots’ misery.
While Farrell’s side move on to a showdown with the All Blacks, the Springboks will take on hosts France in another tantalising last-eight clash.
“We always knew most likely we’d play France or New Zealand,” said 38-year-old Sexton. “There’s no easy option there.
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“All our focus was, ‘let’s win the pool’. You don’t pick and choose, you just do your best.
“We’re exactly where we wanted to be in terms of we won the pool and now we’re into the quarter-final.”
Ireland have injury concerns regarding wings Mack Hansen, Lowe and Keith Earls and lock James Ryan.
Head coach Farrell feels there is more to come from his in-form team and urged his players to embrace the upcoming challenge, describing it as “proper living”.
“I don’t think and neither do the team think that we’ve played our best rugby yet,” said the Englishman, following a 17th successive Test victory.
“We know where we want to go and want we’re trying to achieve. Will we ever get there? I don’t know.
“It’s days like next week that’s coming where we need to find out a little bit more about ourselves. These lads are certainly willing to do that.
“We’ll treat this week, I’m sure once we recover properly, with a spring in our step because if you can’t get excited about what’s coming…this is proper living now.
“This is exactly where you want to be and these boys have been waiting for opportunities, big games to show what they’ve learnt for a while now.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than next week so we’ll relish that.”
Irelands good run is coming to and end on Saturday. They have been the form team granted, but as they say form is temporary - class in permanent.
Ireland are so slick right now. Their cohesiveness and chatter is unmatched. ABs are good when given space. There will be no space for them this weekend. Ireland by 13+
Imo those easy games are not a great way to go into a QF. Ireland will be sharp and ready. AB’s will be shocked by their forward power. Shocked 😳. The Boks spanked them proper up front at Twickenham, yet we could not rattle Ireland despite the 7-1.
I cannot put my finger on it, BUT, something seems to be clicking for the ABs at the moment and maybe that that's called confidence.
There's a massive Ellis Park (last year) feel about this game, when we played the Boks with an incredible game plan and executed a slick line break game that we haven't seen since.
This is what we will see again v Ireland I suspect where parity up will generate enough space to allow the talents that we have in Reiko, JB, BB, Telea and Will Jordan to ask sone searching questions.
Ireland will have to deal with the expectation of the best ever team from their country, being put on the rack in a total pressure cooker situation to respond with a solution, I feel they know how to, certainly seems that way.
My ABs seemed a little rudderless v France, however one could say that this was a tad rusty, the London match v SA insignificant as there was no motivation for anything bar a tomato sauce cup on offer.
For me the Italian match was just freakish as well and they would have put a 1000 on Italy a 6N tier 1 team that night.
So, this is a judgment on the hot cold ABs v the consistency of the Irish.
By virtue of the scars left on AB minds plus the fact that they know they were the last team to beat Ireland, I think the ABs juggernaut will be sending the Irish lads home again at their most dreaded 1/4 final stage.
The Darkness will look to exploit the acres of space behind the Irish defensive line via grubbers and little chips to turn the Irish defense around. I am surprised Scotland did not do this.
I just hope Beauden Barrett doesn’t think revenge is kicking the ball away with aimless chips all night. It will be a long night if he does.
NZ will have to bring something the Irish have not seen before to have a chance, as they did in the 2019 QF, and the first game of the Ireland tour of NZ last year - they have to catch them off guard.
They will need to take a leaf out of SA’s book about how to defend the Irish 10/12/13/15 plays in midfield.
All blacks will smash them like in 2019. All blacks are other beast now and more with the knock out matches which they know perfectly. Ireland never passed the 1/4.They don’t deal with this and dead pressure to return to home .