How All Blacks plan to silence Ireland's green army

The All Blacks are planning on silencing Ireland’s remarkable travelling support at the Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Stade de France in St-Denis tomorrow night.

France’s national rugby stadium has become a home from home for travelling Ireland fans, who have dominated the citadel both by way of sheer numbers and by out-singing opposition fans against both the Springboks and Scotland in the pool stages of the World Cup.

The green army belting out the Cranberries classic Zombie has become one of the moments of the Rugby World Cup and reports are that traffic in Ireland has decreased as a last-minute exodus of Irish rugby fans to the French capital gathers pace ahead of the weekend.

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While Ireland fans have impressed, New Zealand are making it their business to silence the crowd.

“Part of the gameplan is to start well and if we are able to do that it should have a follow-on effect and keep the crowd quiet,” said Sam Cane. “New Zealand is a little bit further away than Ireland so they can get on the plane and support the team a little bit easier.

“I know there will be plenty of Kiwis there too and both teams will be looking to start well. It’s going to be a heck of a test match so that is going to be important and we have seen the crowd getting behind them already this World Cup.

“But to be honest it’s one of the great things about playing in big stadiums, in massive games like this, is the atmosphere and the energy that is in the crowd. We will be feeding off of it.”

The men in black will also be drawing a pretty torrid time of it in 2022, with Ireland recording a historic tour victory on New Zealand soil.

“Going through tough times and good times as a team, you draw on that for sure,” said Cane. “I don’t think there has been any chat amongst our team around underdogs or favourites or anything like that. We’re just aware we are playing the best team in the world at the minute in a quarter-final. We’re treating it as a final because the loser goes home.

“We can draw on the fact we know the work that needs to go in, we know we need to turn up, with an intensity and a freedom and a willingness to be able to do that. We have done that in the past and [I think] we are in a good spot to do that again. We’re very excited.”

The fear of failure doesn’t come into the for the All Blacks, says Cane.

“To be honest that is the first time I have heard it all week [about New Zealand being asked about a fear of failing]. Our mindset is, it’s easy to flip something like that and what if we win? What if we start really well? And what if our set-piece goes exactly how we want it? If you start of thinking of things like that and we take confidence from the hard work that has gone into the preparation. We absolutely are going in with confidence and it will just be about being abele to execute what we have done on the training pitch out there, under massive pressure in front of a full crowd. If we are able to do that and do it consistently we will give ourselves a really good shot at winning and when we get there we will see how we feel.”