Farrell hopes Sexton's All Blacks spat adds extra spice to Friday's clash

The Ireland head coach also explained why Peter O’Mahony and Iain Henderson were preferred on the bench to the likes of younger guns Cian Prendergast and Ryan Baird.

Johnny Sexton and Andy Farrell after their side's defeat in the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match against New Zealand. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell dismissed the notion that revenge will be in the Dublin air when New Zealand take to the field at Aviva Stadium on Friday night. Yet the Ireland boss is also hoping the ongoing spat between All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane and former Irish captain Johnny Sexton that followed last year’s World Cup quarter-final defeat in Paris can add extra spice to the atmosphere generated by the sell-out crowd eagerly awaiting this renewal of rivalries.

There is little doubt that a meeting of these two nations has become essential viewing since Ireland ended 111 years of hurt and beat the All Blacks on that memorable day in Chicago in 2016. The return match two weeks later in Dublin stoked the fires a little more with Kieran Read’s world champions exacting brutal vengeance but Ireland’s four victories in the seven meetings since, including a series win on Kiwi soil in 2022, have brought this fixture to another level.

That New Zealand supporters argue quite reasonably that their heroes have won the two most important of those meetings, at World Cup quarter-finals in 2019 and 2023, only adds to the anticipation for this first meeting since that 28-24 last-eight victory for the All Blacks at Stade de France 13 months ago. So too, the presence of 27 of the 46 players (17 Irish and 10 New Zealand) who took to the field then will be locking horns once more on Friday night.

Yet the Ireland head coach, who will face a new All Blacks head coach in Scott Robertson this time around, was adamant on Wednesday that revenge would not be a motivating factor for his team.

"No, it's not. That's the truth,” Farrell said. “Do you need that when you're playing against one of the best teams in the world? I mean everyone knows that's the truth.

"So, we want to constantly be up there competing with the best so if that's not motivation within itself... I mean playing against the All Blacks has always brought that edge to any type of game. This is a top level Test match that everybody wants to be involved in.

“So, revenge a year ago... there's been a lot of rugby played. A lot of water that's gone under the bridge as well. It doesn't even play a bit in it, for us anyway.” 

The recent resurfacing of old grudges in the form of the now retired Sexton’s autobiography about his full-time exchange with Ioane, however, has reignited some ill will between the camps, or at least Farrell hopes it has.

Sexton wrote of how the All Blacks star had said to him: “Don’t miss your flight tomorrow. Enjoy your retirement,” with Ioane doubling down when his opponent’s book, “Obsessed”, was serialised in a Sunday newspaper, posting a picture of himself and Sexton during that game on his Instagram account with the Cranberries’ refrain “In your head” from their song “Zombie” being played over the top on a loop.

Sexton, who has been brought in to Ireland camp as a consultant to the fly-halves and kickers in the squad, will not be at the Aviva on Friday, Farrell said, but he expects the resurrected spat to add some edge to the atmosphere nonetheless.

"Hopefully. That's what everyone wants, isn't it?

“That's what everyone wants. They want it as well. That's what normally happens when the All Blacks come into town anyway. I haven't seen it any different to that so I think Irish rugby's in a good place. I think everyone knows New Zealand are always the team to beat so I expect it to be as good as ever, if not better.” 

Farrell makes five changes from the side’s most recent fixture, the second Test and series-tying 25-24 victory over world champions South Africa in Durban last July.

Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, inside centre Bundee Aki, right wing Mack Hansen and full-back Hugo Keenan, all of whom missed that Kings Park encounter through injury (with Keenan missing out due to his Olympic Sevens commitments) are all reinstated. Durban starters Calvin Nash and Robbie Henshaw drop out of the 23 completely while full-back Jamie Osbourne moves to the bench as outside back replacement as does scrum-half Conor Murray.

The one enforced change comes at tighthead prop following a hamstring strain for Tadhg Furlong, with Finlay Bealham promoted to the starting line-up for his 43rd Test cap.

All of Ireland’s 23 selections bar replacements, hooker Rob Herring, props Cian Healy and Tom O’Toole, lock James Ryan, fly-half Ciaran Frawley and outside back Jamie Osbourne were in the matchday squad that lost to the All Blacks 13 months ago, though this Friday’s starting fly-half Jack Crowley was an unused replacement behind Sexton in Paris that night.

Former captain Peter O’Mahony and Iain Henderson will act as bench cover for the back-row and at lock, preferred to the likes of younger guns Cian Prendergast and Ryan Baird, though Farrell insisted he was operating a horses for courses strategy.

“It is what it is. You can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat and throw people in if they’re not ready.

“It’s a big Test match. You act accordingly on what’s in front of you and what you’ve got.

“We are not South Africa or England or New Zealand in terms of there being thousands of players out there that you can just throw in and see how it goes… that’s not the way it is here.

“Look after the here and now, the medium term is always around the corner and there’s always planning in and around all that and the long term can look after itself.” 

IRELAND: H Keenan (Leinster); M Hansen (Connacht), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht); J Lowe (Leinster); J Crowley (Munster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), R Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht); J McCarthy (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster); T Beirne (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster) – captain.

Replacements: R Herring (Ulster), C Healy (Leinster), T O’Toole (Ulster), I Henderson (Ulster), P O’Mahony (Munster), C Murray (Munster), C Frawley (Leinster), J Osborne (Leinster).

NEW ZEALAND: W Jordan; M Tele’a, R Ioane, J Barrett, C Clarke; D McKenzie, C Ratima; T Williams, A Aumua, T Lomax; S Barrett – Captain, T Vaa’I; W Sititi, S Cane, A Savea.

Replacements: G Bell, O Tu’ungafasi, P Tosi, P Tuipulotu, S Finau, C Roigard, A Lienert-Brown, S Perofeta.

Referee: Nic Berry (Australia) end