New Zealand head coach Ian Foster said he was confident his team would withstand Ireland’s late attacking assault at the Stade de France.
Ciarán Kennedy Reports from Stade de France AS IRELAND HAMMERED their way through a 37-phase attack, looking for a late score to snatch an historic World Cup quarter-final victory against New Zealand in Paris, the tension that had been bubbling away throughout the night at Stade de France hit an almost unbearable level within the stadium.
Speaking after the game, the New Zealand head coach said he wasn’t overly worried that his team would let the result slip as he watched Ireland launch wave after wave of attack.Advertisement “They were going with a cut-and-paste attack, doing the same sort of things. We were really patient and they were really efficient with it. It was hard to get your nose in, we were hunting and searching, but we showed patience.
“With Scott McLeod and Joe helping him, we have been building our system for today and how we want to defend. We are making some strides in that space and I was delighted. We know how we want to play and what we’re about. It has been building up to a test match like this. When they scored, we knew what we needed to do to fix it, and we were confident we would make in-roads.” Foster added that New Zealand felt Ireland might tire as the contest wore on. Most of the Ireland players had more minutes under their belt at this World Cup compared to New Zealand, who rotated their squad throughout the pool stages.
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