New Zealand captain Richie McCaw is wary of Irish threat
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw has warned his team not to underestimate Ireland, ahead of their Test match at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 20 November.
The All Blacks will go into the match as massive favourites having beaten England 26-16 and thrashed Scotland 49-3 in their two Tests in the Autumn International Series.
In contrast, Ireland lost to South Africa 23-21 in their opening Test. The scoreline flattered the Irish and South Africa were missing a number of players with injuries.
Ireland failed to demonstrate that they will be capable of challenging the All Blacks after grinding out a 20-10 victory over Samoa, in their second Test match on Saturday 13 November.
However, McCaw was quick to point out that the Test match would not be as one sided as many pundits believe. Speaking at a press conference, McCaw said, “When we look at the Irish team there are a lot of guys who are still playing good rugby. Especially,
guys in the backs like D’Arcy, O’Driscoll and O’Gara. They have played a lot of rugby and are pretty classy.”
The New Zealand captain suggested that Ireland showed they could compete with the All Blacks in the second half of their last match in New Zealand, when they were down to 14 men after Jamie Heaslip struck McCaw.
The All Blacks won the match 66-28 on Ireland’s summer tour of New Zealand, but McCaw believes that Ireland can be a threat, despite the heavy defeat. “We started to give them a bit of an easy ride and they made us pay for it. If we do that again we will
be in trouble,” said McCaw.
History would suggest that Ireland will find it difficult to come away with a result on Saturday, as Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks. McCaw said, “Look, I don’t want to be (the captain to lose the record). End of story. Just not wanting it and making
sure it doesn’t happen are very different. We want to make sure we are better than last week and perform. That’s our role and you don’t think about other stuff.”
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