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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.
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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.
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.”
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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.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
235 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
20 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
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