'We understand the way the Irish play. The whole world knows'

Leicester Fainga’anuku admits it will be the “pinnacle of his career” to date when he starts for New Zealand in Saturday’s blockbuster World Cup quarter-final showdown with Ireland in Paris.

The 24-year-old wing has played only six times for the All Blacks since making his debut against the Irish in a summer Test in Auckland in July last year.

However, the Tonga-born back has been handed a surprise start in New Zealand’s biggest game of the tournament so far after fellow wing Mark Telea – who would almost certainly have donned the number 11 jersey on Saturday – was dropped for disciplinary reasons.

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“For myself, I guess it’s the pinnacle of my career,” he said, speaking at Stade de France on the eve of the last-eight encounter in the French capital. “Every player dreams of the opportunity to go out and represent their nation.

“The first great opportunity was being named to come over and represent my nation at a World Cup. To be in this environment and at this tournament, it’s a massive pleasure.

“It’s something I’m extremely grateful for and don’t take for granted.”

Fainga’anuku’s first two appearances for New Zealand came against Ireland in the three-Test summer series in 2022. The Crusaders wing played the full 80 minutes as the All Blacks won 42-19 on his debut and he was then yellow-carded as the Irish gained revenge with a 23-12 triumph in the second Test.

Fainga’anuku had to wait over a year for his third cap when he started in the narrow win over Australia in August. He has subsequently appeared three times in the World Cup pool stage – chipping in with four tries – but he feels it will help him that a third of his caps have come against this weekend’s opponents.

“It’s going to have its benefits that I played against Ireland previously,” he said. “We understand the way the Irish play. The whole world knows this Ireland is quite established both in attack and defence.

“It’s something we’ve been building towards the last few weeks.

“There’s a lot of confidence in the work we’ve done. As a collective, we’re focused on trying to earn ourselves another week here and take another step closer to the World Cup.”

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster is confident his side – ranked fourth in the world – are equipped to eliminate the world’s top-ranked team.

“I think the work they’ve done in the past month, the last three or four months really,” he said when asked what gave him the belief they could halt the rampant Irish.

“We’ve always known coming to this World Cup that, assuming we did the business in the pool stage, it was most likely going to be Ireland or South Africa so either way it was going to be a monster quarter-final.

“It’s not like this is a surprise. We’ve mentally been ready for it. I have full belief in this group. If you look at the quarter-finals, there are going to be four quality teams that won’t be here in the semi-finals and we’re determined that we’re not going to be one of them.

“We know it’s a massive game. The only way to go into those games is believing in your game and who we are. I’ve told them to trust themselves, trust the work we’ve done and go out and express yourself.

“It’s a quarter-final so we don’t want to die wondering and go into our shell. It’s important to us that we play our game.”