All Blacks have high praise for Ireland

THE All Blacks have praised Ireland for knocking the arrogance out of the Tri Nations sides following their victory over Australia on Saturday.

Ireland’s victory has opened the way for a southern versus northern hemisphere final and key players from the All Blacks have been quick to thank the men in green for helping to focus their minds.

“It just shows a little bit of arrogance we sometimes have in the southern hemisphere. We think we’re the best teams in the world and Ireland showed last night that’s not the case,” said All Blacks wing Richard Kahui.

“It just shows this World Cup is not a two-team competition as some people thought it was going to be. There’s a lot of teams out there that can win it and that’s good.”

The All Blacks, who have spent more time as the World’s top ranked team than all other countries combined, are no strangers to World Cup upsets having been knocked out of the past five editions.

Hooker Keven Mealamu, a member of the All Blacks failed 2003 and 2007 campaigns, said the Irish sent a timely message that there was no room to ease up, especially in the forwards.

“They really got into their work and got a lot of benefits from it,” said Mealamu.

“We still take a lot of pride in our scrum and it’s good to see if you’ve got a dominant scrum then you’ll hopefully get a good flow on from that.”

Lock Sam Whitelock admitted that while France was the current target it was hard not to work out the significance of Ireland’s victory.

“Everyone probably does it subconsciously, but we’ve got a big week this week and we’re all excited about that.

“You’re next game is always the most important and this week’s no different so we’ve got to get this week out of the way, play really well and the rest will take care of itself.”