All Blacks clash as much a mental battle as physical

Ireland convincingly beat Scotland on Saturday night to set up the double sided tale of revenge in a grudge match against the All Blacks this weekend.

Ireland were knocked out of the 2019 World Cup by New Zealand, losing 46-14 in a hugely underperforming tournament for Joe Schmidt in Japan. New Zealand later lost to England in the semi-final, but were far better than Ireland in the tournament four years ago.

New Zealand have only lost at the quarter-final stage in the World Cup once before, ironically it was 16 years ago in France against the hosts, when a dubiously forward pass stunned the favourites and New Zealand were out.

Despite never making it past a quarter-final at the tournament, Ireland are going into this game as favourites, seeking revenge for that World Cup loss to the same opposition. Since that tournament, Ireland have beaten New Zealand in Dublin in 2021, as well as winning the three test series in New Zealand in 2022, after losing the first game.

Outside of the World Cup itself, Ireland have a mental stranglehold against this era of All Blacks. However, Ireland will be fighting their own psychological battle with the World Cup tournament itself. They have never shied away from talking about the elephant in the room, the long looming disappointment of being knocked out prematurely in tournaments.

There's a lot of familiarity with Joe Schmidt now on the opposite side after leading Ireland through the 2019 World Cup where Andy Farrell was one of his assistant coaches. Greg Feek was also on Schmidt’s staff in Japan as the Irish scrum coach. Four years have passed and despite the game plan changing and the players evolving, there’ll still be a lot of knowledge of the Irish players in the All Blacks camp.

However,