Scrum-half Aaron Smith insists New Zealand are a completely different team to the one defeated by Ireland in 2022 and dismissed talk of revenge ahead of a mouth-watering World Cup quarter-final.
Ireland have enjoyed the upper hand in recent clashes with the formidable All Blacks, winning three of four meetings during the Andy Farrell era, including last summer's landmark 2-1 tour success.
"We’re at a World Cup, we’re playing in a final and it’s all on the line. History is history and history’s going to get created on Saturday and we’ll see who comes out on top." Yet three-time champions New Zealand hold the far superior World Cup record and condemned the Irish to a familiar last-eight exit with a thumping 46-14 win at the 2019 tournament in Japan .
An intriguing sub-plot is the presence of former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt among New Zealand’s coaching staff. "For us, trying to find those one per centers can be quite hard but with Joe he makes the view of the game a lot easier by the way he understands it.Smith added:"I agree with Rieko. He always has clips to show you if you ask, so you’ve got to be careful what you ask him because it could cost you 20 minutes!Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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