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'Walking around Auckland, it's not like walking down Ballsbridge'

By PA
Ireland celebrate beating All Blacks. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Andy Farrell believes the forthcoming Ireland tour of New Zealand will provide the ultimate test and serve as vital preparation for next year’s World Cup. Head coach Farrell is eager to take his in-form team out of their comfort zone and on Tuesday named a 40-man selection for next month’s three-match series against the formidable All Blacks

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Ireland have impressed for much of the past 18 months, winning twelve of their last 13 fixtures, including a pulsating defeat of Ian Foster’s Kiwis in Dublin in the autumn. Yet many of Farrell’s squad, which includes five uncapped players, are yet to experience international rugby outside Europe after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a 2020 trip to Australia and last year’s proposed visit to Fiji.

With the countdown to the 2023 World Cup in France well underway, the Englishman is keen to build experience and is braced for a major examination of recent progress. “Any good performance that you have seen over the last two years, we need to be better than that,” Farrell said of the upcoming Ireland trip.

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The Breakdown | Sky Sport NZ | Episode 17

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The Breakdown | Sky Sport NZ | Episode 17

“It’s different over there and that is why touring for these lads is some important. We have missed it. We have lads on 20-plus caps who have never toured. Walking around Auckland or Wellington or Dunedin, it’s not like walking down Ballsbridge (the area of Dublin which is home to the Aviva Stadium) and people winding the window down and saying how good you are.

“This is completely different; this is proper international rugby that doesn’t get any better and it’s exactly what we want at this moment in time. We are so excited about taking this squad to probably the hardest place in world rugby to go to and finding out about ourselves. This is the ultimate, isn’t it? We’re talking about building towards a World Cup and what you want to do in those types of circumstances is test yourself against the best.”

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Ireland will play Test matches on July 2, 9 and 16 in Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington respectively, with midweek clashes against the Maori All Blacks scheduled for June 29 and July 12. The Irish have never beaten the All Blacks on New Zealand soil but have won three of the past five meetings between the countries.

Influential out-half Johnny Sexton will captain the squad, which includes Test newcomers Ciaran Frawley, Joe McCarthy, Jimmy O’Brien, Jeremy Loughman and Cian Prendergast. Robert Baloucoune, Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell and Ronan Kelleher were ruled out of contention by injury.

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Speaking of Ulster wing Baloucoune, Farrell said: “He has a few things going on in his hip that are muscular, it’s not structural damage which is a good thing but the injury is set to be four to six weeks.

“Gutted for him, absolutely. We are gutted for ourselves as coaches as well because this is the type of tour that is made for people like Rob to show his worth on the big stage. This is the start of our World Cup campaign and we want players like Rob involved in that process.”

Farrell also insisted he has no concerns about how the Irish provinces finished the club season, nor their perceived struggles with powerful packs. Leinster suffered a last-gasp loss to La Rochelle in the Heineken Champions Cup final at the end of May and then, like Ulster, tasted defeat in the United Rugby Championship semi-finals just last weekend.

Munster made it as far as the quarter-finals of both competitions, while Connacht failed to make the URC playoffs. Farrell said: “A lot gets said about Ireland and are they playing like Munster? Are they playing like Leinster? Are they playing like Ulster? Etcetera.

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“We are Ireland, we’re our own team, you know? We play our own way and we have come up against big teams before and been unbelievably physical. We have done pretty well of late in that type of scenario, so no, it doesn’t affect us at all.”

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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