Sexton: World Cup record not weighing down Ireland

Johnny Sexton says Ireland are not carrying "much baggage" from previous World Cup exits ahead of Saturday's quarter-final with New Zealand.

Andy Farrell’s side, who topped Pool B after beating South Africa and Scotland, face three-time winners the All Blacks who finished second behind France in Pool A.

Ireland, from nine attempts, have never made it to the last four of the competition.

They have lost seven quarter-finals in that run, including the 2019 defeat to New Zealand.

The captain, who is set to retire after the tournament, believes the team, who won a series in New Zealand in 2022, are Six Nations champions and on a 17-game winning run, are a different beast.

"We’ve worked on our mental game for the last four years," the 38-year-old told reporters in Paris this afternoon.

"We’ve put ourselves in different scenarios over the last four years to prepare for this.

"But each quarter-final that we haven’t got through or when we haven’t got through our pool, you know, they’ve all been different.

"And it’s a different group again so each of those groups lost once, it wasn’t the same group losing the quarter-final year after year.

"If it was club rugby it would be probably a bigger hurdle but it’s a different group and I don’t think we’re carrying much baggage.

"It’s a one-off game and we’ve got to prepare for it now."

Sexton has played against the All Blacks 17 times in his career, winning six times and drawing once.

Asked what it would mean to him to knock Ian Foster’s side out of the competition, he said: "I haven’t thought once, personally, about what the game means.

"It’s all about the team and progressing in the competition. That’s all we are thinking about.

"I’ve had some great battles against New Zealand over the years, with