All Blacks to ‘come out swinging’ against Ireland

Planet Rugby

New Zealand perform the Haka before the Autumn Nations Series match at Principality Stadium, Cardiff. Picture date: Saturday October 30, 2021.

All Blacks coach John Plumtree insists that fatigue will not be an issue when they take on Ireland in their Autumn Nations Series clash.

After a long 2021 season, where they claimed yet another Rugby Championship title, Ian Foster’s men have just two matches remaining.

Coincidently, they are the toughest games of their northern hemisphere tour. After comfortable wins against the USA, Wales and Italy, they now face the Irish before taking on a very dangerous France team next weekend.

The players could easily be weary and looking forward to their break, but Plumtree insists that their minds are fully focused on the next couple of encounters.

Ireland seeking All Blacks scalp

“It’s certainly not, because we only have a couple of weeks to go,” he said. “Fozzy (Foster) has been really good at making sure we stay focused on the here and now and it is probably more about the challenge and the environment that we are in.

“We are in a rugby-mad country, we know that they are after our scalp and that’s when the All Blacks are at their best, when we feel like our backs are against the wall and we have to come out swinging, and that’s what we’ll do.”

After failing to beat the All Blacks throughout their time as a rugby playing country, Ireland then ended up doing it twice in as many years, in 2016 and 2018.

A number of the individuals that were part of those historic victories will feature this weekend, while Andy Farrell’s men are also boosted by the presence of three New Zealand-born players.

Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe all played in Super Rugby before moving to Europe, which means they could pass on valuable knowledge to their team-mates.

Although Plumtree doesn’t necessarily believe that it will be an advantage to the hosts, the coach says that the fear factor has gone from Irish rugby when they face the three-time world champions.

“I’m not sure they’ll fear us, mate. Ireland will believe that they can beat us. That will be based on how they played (in beating Japan 60-5) last week and their preparation this week. We understand that as an All Black team and that’s what excites us as well,” he said.

“Those guys know our players. Some of them have played a lot of rugby together and, from what I’ve read, they’ve gone to some of the same schools and stuff but they don’t know what our plan is, how we train, and prepare to play against them.

“They’ll have a bit of insight and a bit of history on some individuals, but our plan is our plan and they won’t know it.”

Plumtree himself has experience of Irish rugby having spent a brief time as their coach working under Joe Schmidt.

He added: “Yeah, fond memories there. When did I get here? The end of 2013, I think. A few years ago now but it’s good to see him passing on all his knowledge to some of those young fellas in the forward pack. I’m sure they’re really enjoying him.

“I loved my short time here and really enjoyed working with the Irish forward pack, and Paul in particular. I see Cian Healy’s (still) there, Iain Henderson, so there’s a few of the boys that I was coaching back in the day there. It will be good to catch up with them afterwards.”