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'No, it’s not, that’s the truth' - Andy Farrell rubbishes Ireland subplot
By PA
Head coach Andy Farrell hopes a raucous Dublin crowd can help Ireland topple the All Blacks.
A sold-out Aviva Stadium awaits New Zealand on Friday evening as the hosts attempt to right the wrongs of last year’s World Cup quarter-final exit in Paris.
Farrell, who dismissed the notion of revenge being a motivating factor, anticipates an electric atmosphere, with a planned pre-match light show set to fire up supporters.
“That’s what everyone wants – I’m sure that they (New Zealand) want it as well,” he said.
“That’s what normally happens when the All Blacks come to town anyway. I haven’t seen it any different to that, so I think Irish rugby’s in a good place.
“I think everyone knows New Zealand are always the team to beat so I expect it (the atmosphere) to be as good as ever, if not better.”
Ireland suffered a dramatic 28-24 loss to the All Blacks at Stade de France just over 12 months ago.
Farrell insists avenging that heartbreaking result is not part of his thinking.
“No, it’s not, that’s the truth,” he said.
“Do you need that when you’re playing against one of the best teams in the world?
“Playing against the All Blacks has always brought that edge to any type of game. This is a top-level Test match that everybody wants to be involved in.
“Don’t get me wrong, we were gutted to lose that game, but that’s so much in the distant past for us now.”
Ireland went 111 years without beating New Zealand – losing 27 and drawing once in 28 meetings – before a 40-29 success in Chicago in 2016.
Including that landmark victory at Soldier Field, the reigning Six Nations champions have won five of the last nine matches against the All Blacks.
“I suppose New Zealand over the years have had it in a sense where they’ve probably thought they should win against Ireland,” said Farrell.
“But hopefully the way that we’ve performed or improved since Soldier Field, the respect is a little bit higher from their side for us now.”
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Latest Comments
That's really stupidly pedantic. Let's say the gods had smiled on us, and we were playing Ireland in Belfast on this trip. Then you'd be happy to accept it as a tour of the UK. But they're not going to Australia, or Peru, or the Philippines, they're going to the UK. If they had a match in Paris it would be fair to call it the "end-of-year European tour". I think your issue has less to do with the definition of the United Kingdom, and is more about what is meant by the word "tour". By your definition of the word, a road trip starting in Marseilles, tootling through the Massif Central and cruising down to pop in at La Rochelle, then heading north to Cherbourg, moving along the coast to imagine what it was like on the beach at Dunkirk, cutting east to Strasbourg and ending in Lyon cannot be called a "tour of France" because there's no visit to St. Tropez, or the Louvre, or Martinique in the Caribbean.
Go to commentsJust thought for a moment you might have gathered some commonsense from a southerner or a NZer and shut up. But no, idiots aren't smart enough to realise they are idiots.
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