All Blacks coach Steve Hansen faces a public backlash after naming scrum-half Piri Weepu in his 30-man squad for this month’s three-test series with Ireland.

AFTER weeks of painstaking work in the gym and — if the lessons of four years ago have been absorbed — plenty of ball work and contact drills on the manicured playing surfaces of Carton House, the Irish squad will get a first indication of where their preparations lay when they face Scotland in Murrayfield this Saturday.