O'Gara: Fast start can give Irish opportunity to beat All Blacks

Ronan O'Gara doesn’t believe that the nature of Ireland’s loss to the Maori All Blacks will seep into the preparations for Saturday’s Test against New Zealand.

An inexperienced Irish XV were soundly beaten by Craig McMillan's side, who themselves included ten debutants, to get the tour off to an underwhelming start.

While Cian Healy has been named on the bench for the opening Test on Saturday, Ireland, who already lost Iain Henderson, Rob Herring and Mack Hansen, have to deal with further injuries for Jeremy Loughman, Jimmy O’Brien and James Hume.

O’Gara, the Champions Cup-winning coach with La Rochelle, faced New Zealand 13 times in his Irish career and spent two years as an assistant with the Crusaders.

"I wouldn’t make any correlation between Wednesday’s game and Saturday," the former Munster out-half told RTÉ Sport.

"Test games are very different and I suppose there were some good warnings for Ireland in the fact that you can’t give New Zealanders time and space on the ball.

"That was one key learning and the second was just how dangerous they are in transition.

"Thirdly, their skill levels, even in wet conditions, June, it was slippy ball, their front five are very comfortable handling.

"So we got an early snapshot into what you’ll see on Saturday from the boys in black.

"From an Ireland point of view it’s something that can be addressed quickly but stopping it in real life can be difficult, especially in Eden Park if they get their tails up.

"You have to start fast against New Zealand and when they become unplayable is when they get confident.

"The flip side of that is when you take away their time and space and put them under pressure and they have new combinations, then there’s a big opportunity for Ireland."

While Andy