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Just five All Blacks could make Ireland team - Mehrtens
By Ian Cameron
Just five of the current All Blacks side could break into the current Ireland team, according to former New Zealand stand-off Andrew Mehrtens.
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Mehrtens and former All Blacks halfback Andy Ellis were tasked with putting together a combined 15 made up of players of both sides on RugbyPass TV Live, and it truly illustrates how the tables have turned in recent years.
There’s no room for Sam Whitelock or Brodie Retallick, nor is there space for the likes of Richie Mo’unga or Beauden Barrett.
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According to the former halfbacks only Scott Barrett, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, Rieko Ioane and Will Jordan could crack the team, with Ireland taking the other ten spots.
The All Blacks could potentially face Ireland in the quarter-final, depending on the result of Ireland’s game with Scotland next weekend, which will put Pool B – aka The Pool of Death – to bed.
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For now, All Blacks’ thoughts will not be on Ireland, but rather on putting in another statement win against Pool A minnows Uruguay, after they drubbed Italy 96-17 in Lyon.
“Really satisfied, really good performance,” said head coach Ian Foster. “It felt a little bit strange having the gap after the Namibia game. We did a lot of hard work and this was the game we prepared well for. World Cups are full of games where there’s a bit of an edge to them and we certainly had an edge to that performance.
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“It was a performance we wanted this week. People create a lot of panic about your chances and all that sort of stuff, particularly after we lost the first one (against France).
“The critical game for us in this pool was always going to be Italy. There was enough evidence to show that if we didn’t perform well and they played as well as they have been performing this year, it was going to be a heck of a tough game. We were good enough to take that away from them.
“We have to do the same next week as the same applies. Do the maths and next week’s also equally important. We put ourselves in control of our own destiny and that’s where we want to be and put some pressure on some other teams who have still got some tough games coming up. Look at Ireland. If Scotland win two games then Ireland can miss out. It’s a tough World Cup.”
Opened the article to read and possibly comment. Then read comments, saw Nige has commented. Will now close article and find another proper article to read.
Andrew don't lower yourself to Stuart Barnes retarded level of journalism...Ireland are a good side but their players suit their game....if you want to create scenarios then maybe only 5 Irish players might get a look in with ABs the Irish have never in history spanked their 6 nation Italy by as much as we have.. maybe a little less beersies for you huh.
5 is optimistic. Ringrose over Ioane (he defends and distributes better) and Doris over Savea at 8, but Savea over De Flier at 7. Doris is a proper number 8. Savea is best at 7. No diss on Savea who has been a standout despite having to play out of position.
I’m a long time Kiwi fan but Ireland are much better drilled and coached. As a unit they are hard to find fault with and I don’t think this AB team can play at their level - not for 80.
I see another many learnings speech from Foster in our near future.
These combined 15s are a waste of everybody's time.
I think that no 5 All Black's would improve the Irish team, but equally no 5 Irish players would improve the All Black's. The players suit the team and suit the system.
Sensationalistic headlines play on our patriotic bias. As a kiwi your thinking yeah right? Maybe I should read this drivel. But its just another speculative fluff piece. In now for some real headlines former England coach Clive Woodward, reckons Adolph Hitler would have made a better first five than Dan Carter.
As many as 5?
Based on an annihilation of...Italy?
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Dont listen to Mehrtens its pure BS mind games same as Israel Dagg holding an Irish jersey green pen in his hand - they dont want NZ to win - they have written /penned in Ireland to win
We shouldnt need to be afraid of Ireland there are more than 5 who could crack their team Easy and Im not going to name them because its junk speculation - we can also say the reverse how many Irish would make our second 15 and and number One 7s team - not so many we are superior NZ are back in spades and the Irish are getting skittery at the thought of the All Blacks knocking them out and preventing them from taking our 19 straight wins record shared with England
They are going to lose - why not we have the players fitness and game plan to finish them off if they play like they did against Italy - just improve their defense on the outside - if thats going to be a our bench going forward Ireland are toast and so are others - ABs are building nicely for the quarters we NZ are 3 times world Champs actually it should be 4 times SA should have been stripped of their 95 Title for the govt deep state pys op they did on poisoning NZ BRING IT ON TIME TO AVENGE THE SERIES LOSS WHICH WASNT A WHITEWASH happened during kovid plandemic we lost our coaches and a player to a stupid Red card in the second test we also had player vax sickness to deal with - yes we have been up and down but so has this world in the last 4 years now I see some serious form and focus
Probably a reasonable assessment by Merts, though you could argue the toss about quite a few - like Ringrose/Ioane, Barrett/Beirne, Savea/Doris, Frizzell/O'Mahoney, etc, but I wonder after the quarter final whether the choice between the old and new guard might be a lot more contentious - Furlong/Lomax, Porter/De Groot, Sexton/Mounga, Bundee/Jordie, Hansen/Telea and even De Flier/Papallii (if he gets a start). Depending on the result, Merts' 5 could become 10, and Razor might be feeling pretty good about the material he's got to work with next year.
I don't know about Rieko over Ringrose...
That's probably right. Also, Ireland are better organised, and make far fewer mistakes. ABs to fall apart under the pressure. In their pale green shirts, Ireland look rather bland, concealing an abundance of serious ability.