Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I'd say Jeff Wilson is sitting there wondering how it's come to this, that the other guys he's talking to managed to balls it up badly enough that Ireland became a genuine rival to NZ.

I don't think New Zealand ballsed anything up really. They're still a very good side that don't have quite as many world class players as they used to.

They had a core of players from about 2005-2015 that all had reasonable arguments to be considered the greatest to ever play in their position. Retallick, Whitelock, Thorn, McCaw, Kaino, Read, Carter and Nonu are all irreplaceable.

The All Blacks have done as good a job of replacing those talents as most reasonable people could have hoped. But bar maybe Ardie Savea, none of the current All Blacks squad match up to their predecessors. Beauden Barrett too, but as a 15 moreso than at 10.

Well they're right about the Irish media anyway. Likes of thornley and Ruaidhrí ó Connor are pretty insufferable

Strange feeling about the game tonight. Usually before big games there is an emotional energy around the place but I'm not getting a sense of it for whatever reason this time. Hard to put my finger on it.

Hopefully we don't see that translate to the pitch. If our accuracy is good I think they will cough up penalties against us.

Yeah, I was surprised to hear Johnny Holland (I think, RTE pundit) talking about how that match was 2 excellent sides cancelling each other out in many ways, and that NZ didn't really get going because England's defense was so good. I see where he's coming from but I didn't see either side as being particularly great and I thought it was 2 teams that don't really have a game plan to fully execute. England's defense is good but their attack is poor, NZ as ever have brilliant individuals who can score tries from scraps but similarly don't have any real strategy to break teams down and turn possession into sustained and effective attack. And their discipline is terrible, 4 penalties from tackling the man without the ball is absolutely scandalous for a test side. Think about the 1/4 final in the WC, they literally didn't make a mistake.

Not sure what way it'll go

New Zealand were mixed last week and lucky to get the win. It's our first game in a while and we could be rusty for the start. Have a feeling it's going to be a 16-16 draw

Is there a match thread ?

I don't think so. Their season is pretty spread out. After the England hit-out last week, I think they'll be in optimum shape.

We have a few changes and haven't played together in approximately 4 months. And its turned into a damp night here in Dublin, so more potential for some rusty errors, maybe a lost scrum or two later on.

I'm thinking New Zealand by about 10, but then I lost 50 quid on Kamala friggin Harris on Wednesday too, so more likely Ireland will skittle them!

Cos sport doesn’t always go to form / ranking.

As evidenced by, for example, Ireland - a much better side than England - losing to England the last time they played. Thats the beauty of sport.

We’ll see how it goes, but I don’t expect anything easy 2nite, a NZ win wouldn’t be a massive shock.

Band cut off part of the New Zealand anthem apparently.

Not sure that was a pen