“You would expect it to be like that come New Zealand week. They’re the best team in the world for a reason and we get excited. We want to play against them as much as we possibly can.”
“Why? Because we want to test ourselves and we want to keep on improving and pushing up the ladder. If we could play them every week it would be good for us because it would be good for our development.”
Andy Farrell 2018
Andy Farrell gets his wish this weekend when his Ireland side takes on New Zealand in the Aviva Stadium, in what will be his first fixture against Southern Hemisphere opposition in his position of head coach of Ireland. Farrell's men will take on the might of New Zealand rugby four times this season, with an end of season tour down to New Zealand in July 2022. Ireland might end up playing them again in the quarter-final of the World Cup in 2023.
New Zealand has scored 675 points and 96 tries this season including last Saturday’s 47-9 victory against Italy. With them back as the #1 side in the world, how will Ireland look to take New Zealand on?
Ireland v New Zealand: four critical areas for Andy Farrell
1. Ireland need to keep pushing its offloading game
Ireland started the Autumn Nations Series with an emphatic 60-5 win over Japan, which means Andy Farrell’s men are now unbeaten in their last six games. A pleasing aspect of last Saturday’s game was the evolution of Ireland’s continuity and offloading game. With twelve Leinster players in the starting XV, the team produced a high-paced, offloading based game plan which Leinster fans have been watching and enjoying so far this season. Leinster is the No.1 offloading team in the URC competition with 60 offloads. Whether this was a change of direction from the Ireland coaching staff or the players are playing to their natural game, it is an exciting spectacle and one area of the game that will be interesting to see develop against more superior opposition.
James Lowe led the charts with 6 offloads vs Japan
A quick look at Ireland's Offloading game from #IREvJAP . James Lowe with 6. Great to see players running into the space & the reactions of the support players were excellent. Hopefully more of the same this weekend. pic.twitter.com/BMZdxyRYAh
— Brett Igoe (@brettruganalyst) November 10, 2021
2. Ireland need to keep their penalty count & turnover rate low
Looking back at Ireland’s victories over New Zealand in 2016 and 2018, Ireland’s penalty count was incredibly low. This denied New Zealand opportunities to kick at goal and also opportunities to gain field position (lineouts in the 22m zone). The other interesting stat is the turnover’s conceded: Ireland need to keep their turnovers low, which will deny New Zealand an opportunity to get their unstructured/transition attack into play.
Ireland v New Zealand November 2018
Ireland v New Zealand November 2016 (Soldier Field)
(Source: https://www.irishrugby.com)
3. Ireland need to be aggressive with their counterattack
New Zealand’s kicking game has been very predictable over the last number of years, with them favouring kicking down the right-hand side of the field. They will look to kick long while keeping the ball on the pitch. This predictability can be turned into a strength for Ireland. They may be able to expose New Zealand during this transition phase, like they did vs Japan last weekend. By opening a blindside, Ireland can look to attacking back New Zealand’s lack of organisation on that side of the field.
Lots of teams exploiting the short side on Transition from kicks - back field players attack at 50% (midfield) and look to come back blind. Great example for Ireland's first try. #Rugby pic.twitter.com/arNsYdizMS
— Brett Igoe (@brettruganalyst) November 10, 2021
4. Ireland need to stop New Zealand from crossing the gainline off 1st phase
Easier said than done, for sure. New Zealand rugby is all about momentum, and Ireland’s task is to stop it. In the victories from 2016 and 2018, Joe Schmidt’s men met New Zealand head-on and stopped their momentum. Ireland needs to disrupt/stop/slow every facet of New Zealand’s attack. Every source of possession, every tackle, needs to be contested. Ireland needs to force New Zealand to commit more men into rucks thus taking them out of the attack line for the next phase.
Here you can see how they cross the gain line off 1st phase using Will Jordan v Wales, with a simple direct play.
Wales’ defence is now left scrabbling and never recover from that first point of attack.
New Zealand is now on the front foot and it results in an excellent try.
With the Autumn Nations Series now in full swing, this is a great benchmark game for Andy Farrell’s men with their first game against a team from the Rugby Championship down south. Ireland’s newfound freedom in attack should test New Zealand but with all New Zealand teams, they will find a weakness and test you to the max. In the two victories against New Zealand (2016 & 2018), Ireland have played with their heads and to their strengths. It will be intriguing to see how they approach taking on the number 1 ranked team in the World this Saturday.
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