No sign of Umaga backlash as All Blacks arrive in Dublin

THE All Blacks bedded down in their west Dublin hotel last night to the screech of belated Halloween fireworks.

But there was little evidence of anything similar when the side, and captain Tana Umaga in particular, arrived on Irish soil earlier.

The Wellington midfielder has been depicted as ‘persona non grata’ in this country since he teamed up with Keven Mealamu for the tackle that abruptly severed Brian O’Driscoll’s Lions tour.

But Kiwi assistant coach Steve Hansen claimed the 32-year-old received a typically Irish welcome on arrival from Wales.

“Lots of youngsters came running up to the team for autographs and Tana particularly. A lot of people came up to him and said welcome to Ireland, that they were very happy to see him here and not to take any notice of what’s been said in the papers.

“That’s great because Ireland has always been a great place to tour for me personally and a number of the team as well. We’re looking forward to it. People are pretty understanding and it’s a common phrase that you have to ‘move on’.”

It’s been flagged for a number of months now that Umaga would be rested for the Dublin leg of a tour where the All Blacks will be looking to achieve the Grand Slam.

Hansen confirmed again yesterday that development was the main aim of the winter programme so a number of changes look imminent for Saturday.

Ali Williams returns to training today after missing the victory in Cardiff where his fellow lock James Ryan took a knock to the knee that will be monitored for the next few days. It’s with the home team though where most of the fretting over injuries has been done, even if Hansen predictably talked up the hosts last night.

“This week’s game will be huge. There’s a number of reasons but mainly because they’re a good side. Very good up front. Lansdowne Road is a hugely difficult place to come and play Test rugby. We don’t expect that to be any different. From my experience over here, they’ve always been able to replace players with other quality people. They’ll do that again.

“But we’re very happy with the performance on Saturday. We want to perform to a high level every week and at an intensity that it makes it hard for other teams to beat us. We did that on Saturday so expectations were met.

“I think Wales played as well this time as they did a year ago. Maybe they weren’t allowed to play. I thought our first 20 minutes was as good as we’ve played.

“When they had the ball, and when we had it, we were able to put pressure on them. They defended very well but, in the end, they just ran out of energy. In the second half we reaped the rewards of that first 20 minutes.”