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Sean Fitzpatrick says 'the boot is on the other foot' in All Blacks' quarter-final

Richie McCaw and Sam Cane at All Blacks training. Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Rugby World Cup winning All Black great Sean Fitzpatrick is cautiously optimistic about New Zealand’s chances against Ireland in the second quarter-final, but is under no illusions his home nation is not favoured to win the contest.

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In an interview with Martin Devlin, Fitzpatrick was quick to address the elephant in the room and what he admitted was “not a good omen” for the All Blacks, recalling the last time the two spoke was in the build-up to 2019’s Rugby World Cup semi-final when New Zealand were eliminated by England.

To inspire some confidence to counteract any superstitious doubt that fact may provoke, the 92-time All Black was keen to explore some details that separate the two occasions.

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“Obviously they’re the number one ranked team in the world at the moment,” he said on The Platform. “I feel we know a lot more about them than we did about England in 2019.”

The optimism was kept in moderation as Fitzpatrick expressed his general thoughts on the match.

“I thought we’d got over that physicality issue we had, but then Twickenham rolls around five or six weeks ago and I think that shook us a bit. Since then, and I was at the opening (World Cup) game live, and I thought for 40, 50, 60 minutes that we played really well, had lots of opportunities in that first half, just didn’t take them.

“So, I’m really excited about the 23, that we’ve got everyone available. I said for us to have any chance of beating the Irish, we’re going to need our 23 best players available, and I think we’ve got that.

“We’re in with a real chance and we’re playing against the best, so the boot is on the other foot.”

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Related

Mark Telea is the only member of the All Blacks’ preferred starting XV unavailable for the clash, he is replaced by bulking winger Leicester Fainga’anuku.

The familiarity of the favourites tag has eluded the All Blacks since that Twickenham Test against the Springboks, but they are not the only ones heading into unchartered waters. If Ireland are to win the quarter-final, they will claim a semi-final birth for the first time in Rugby World Cup history.

In order for New Zealand to progress and condemn Irish fans to four more years of quarter-final jabs, Fitzpatrick says discipline is paramount.

“When we are at our best, everything operates. We don’t make mistakes, we don’t give away penalties, we just build pressure.

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“You look at France and Ireland, that’s what they’ve been doing. They just build pressure, build pressure, don’t get any yellow cards, don’t get any red cards, and ultimately, the door opens.

“And, you’ve got to take your opportunities. The teams that have beaten the All Blacks take their opportunities, and that’s what we need to do. In that opening 20-30 minutes, we have just got to be so clinical.

“You think about that opening game against the French, we had opportunities, but we didn’t take those opportunities and it came back to bit us later in the game.”

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Comments

11 Comments
P
Poe 436 days ago

Do Ireland really have the same defence coach as 2019?

T
Timgrugpass 436 days ago

Re selections,

I’d (nothing new just déjà vu since 2020) have Papalii over Cane anyday, at least to start.

& with Telea out I'd put Jordan at full back instead of B.Barrett.

K
KiwiSteve 436 days ago

No pens, no handling errors. ABs will win.

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T
Tom 1 hour ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!


It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.


It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.


Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.


Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!

1 Go to comments
J
JW 5 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.


First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.


They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.


Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.


Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.


That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup

207 Go to comments
J
JW 11 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

207 Go to comments
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