Beirne: Ireland better now than side that started 17-game unbeaten run

EVER-IMPROVING: Tadhg Beirne. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Change was inevitable when the final whistle sounded at Wellington’s Sky Stadium 15 months ago.

The All Blacks had lost a three-match Test series on home soil. To Ireland. This couldn't happen. It just couldn't. 

The NZRU said as much with a statement that performances across the 2-1 series loss were “not acceptable”. They couldn’t stand for this.

Ian Foster kept his job, just, but others weren’t so lucky. His coaching staff was shaken up and so was the team. Only eight of those starters from that third Test last year are likely to feature in their XV on Saturday and two of the survivors will wear different numbers.

Ireland have named 13 of the same men who secured that historic first with injuries to James Ryan and Robbie Henshaw preventing them from putting their hands up for the World Cup quarter-final in Saint-Denis on Saturday night.

One team has changed utterly. The other, on the face of it, has struck a steadier course. The mantra all week is that this New Zealand is nothing like the one that came second best in the summer of 2022 and that they are all the better for it.

But Ireland? It’s not as if they have stood still. 

Seventeen straight wins attest to that but the question is whether they have changed enough, added enough new parts to their slick machine, to stay ahead of the pack again this weekend.

“I said from the start that since our warm-up games, we have improved game-on-game,” said Tadhg Beirne. “Even during this World Cup, we have improved game-on-game, and if you go back to the start of that 17-game run, I definitely think we are a much better team.

“We have improved in many areas. It may only be slightly, but definitely better. We are putting together performances that are longer than 10/20-minute spells. We are going to keep striving for that 80-minute performance.” 

The difference in the All Black team then and now is remarkable.

Injuries have had their say but the XV to be named this evening will be markedly different in the front row and on the wing. Beauden Barrett has switched from ten to 15, Richie Mo’unga from bench to ten and Jordie Barrett from full-back to centre.

Scott Barrett has wedged himself into the second row while the back row composition they name will be interesting now that under-fire captain Sam Cane has returned to fitness. What worth, so, that series win to Ireland?

“A series win in New Zealand hadn’t been done before by an Irish side so you take confidence from that, but a year and a couple of months is a long time in rugby and a long time to fix up on the weaknesses that they felt we probably overcame.

“I think they will be a different side on Saturday,” Beirne agreed. “Massively looking forward to the challenge but, yeah, we will take a bit of confidence from that tour but we certainly won’t be getting ahead of ourselves.”