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Sam Whitelock lifts the lid on how All Blacks can beat Ireland

By AAP
(Photo by Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

New Zealand captain Sam Whitelock says his team have plenty left in the tank as they renew their rivalry with Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

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The All Blacks are winding down their international season but Whitelock says the players are raring to go for the sold-out Lansdowne Road clash.

Ireland have won two of their last four tests against the All Blacks since breaking their 111-year drought in 2016 and Whitelock said it was a contest New Zealand looked forward to.

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“This week is massive,” Whitelock told reporters on Friday.

“If you look back over the last five or six times we’ve played Ireland, they are big games and big occasions.

“Especially here (in Dublin), it’s an amazing atmosphere that is hard to describe.

“Great teams get up and play well, and we will never be disappointed with what the Irish bring.

“We also don’t want to disappoint them and so must put our best foot forward.”

Whitelock praised the Kiwi coaching staff’s squad rotation for keeping the players fresh.

“It’s nice seeing the energy of the boys,” the veteran lock said.

“The squad in general is in a good spot and we’ve had some great training this week.

“Management have done a great job of holding some players back and managing when they play.

Whitelock is expecting Ireland will have a few tricks up their sleeves and said the All Blacks would have to react quickly.

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While New Zealand’s attack has been on fire they have only conceded three tries in three games, and only one in the first half.

“We do talk about it. We ask; ‘If we were playing us, what would we do?’

“That is part of the sport that our senior players and management love, the whole chess game of international rugby.

“(If Ireland come with something different) we have to have things in our head straight away that will hopefully put us on the front foot.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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