Ireland v New Zealand Oct 14 Build up Thread

James Ryan played on after the injury, could be a stress fracture but also could easily be badly bruised which would just about put him in contention but he wouldn't be able to train much this week, Hansen seemed to walk off unaided so if it is just a bang to the calf you'd expect him to be available, I'd be more concerned with Lowe and complications with eye recovery. One of either Earls and Henshaw and maybe by the the end of the week we won't be talking about a disaster of an injury list, however I still think it was a mistake not playing JOB in one of the group games.

Unless they are playing mind games with NZ over the injuries, hard not to see Hansen, Lowe at least, ready for Sat.

No?

During the AIs..., in the AIs..., it was around that time Ireland dropped him.

That's what I would have thought.

And I got more than 'hope' from the presser, I think Lowe and Hansen will be raring to go come Saturday.

Anyone reckon JS will roll the dice and go for the November 2016 tactics in the Aviva? I.e., just bring the brutality, hope they stay legal and get 1-2 of our key players off the pitch?

The obvious target would be Sexton, but I honestly think you'd get just as good a return if you took out Ringrose. A midfield of Stu and Bundee will concede tries against that All-Blacks attack, even if there's only 14 of them.....

It's a much bigger risk now, I completely agree.

BUT, they don't necessarily have to be illegal (or obvious) shots to be effective...

Fair to call this the biggest game in Irish rugby history?

I know we can point to Grand Slam's, series win in NZ... hard to see past this Saturday as a massive massive opportunity.

Speaking of, this is going to be even better than a home game for Ireland.

Aviva capacity is almost 52,000.

There's no doubt in my mind that there will be more than that number of Irish fans in the Stade on Saturday.

Were in such a better place than 4 years ago

Trying to think back but I think nobody gave us a hope in 2019 esp after the Japanese loss

Been trying to put this game to the back of my mind for a considerable period now, even when it became clear they were almost guaranteed to be our opponents.

Nerves already starting to build up and it's only Monday 😫.

I do think the extra 2 days to prepare for this game is a decent advantage for NZ. We scored very early in all our games in the summer tour last season. NZ will make a point to come out very hard I think. If we get to 15 mins intact I fancy us. Our pack is stronger. Weather the storm, and let them get on top of NZ and open the space up.

Also be interesting to see if NZ are brave enough to not start their captain. Feels like they are stronger without him.

Fair enough.

But I maintain our current backup 10 (Crowley) is a substantial upgrade on defense. And we have also improved a lot in this area since the Summer tour last year.

I think that's fair. A WC QF is a bigger game than anything in the 6 Nations or on tours. The NZ game in 2019 and France games in 2003 and 1995 we were considerable underdogs which detracted from the occasion. We had a decent enough chances in 2011 and 2015 but Wales and Argentina are not as big as New Zealand. The Australia game in Landsdowne Road in 1991 is the only game that comes close for me but the World Cup was nowhere near as big then as it is now and again even though we performed brilliantly on the day and should have won not many would have given us a chance before the game.