Ireland face New Zealand next Saturday in Eden Park in Auckland. They faced them there in 2022 in the first game of that summer tour.
Eden Park is a fortress as New Zealand haven’t lost there since 1994 although that particular stat comes with a caveat as New Zealand do not play all their home games in Auckland and while it’s impressive to see it and say it, but one day they will be defeated and Ireland will hope they can be the ones to do it having won a test series in 2022 in New Zealand.
Ireland have beaten both Australia and Japan in the past 2 weeks and will be hoping to put in their best showing on New Zealand soil to end the 2025/2026 season on the ultimate high note.
Given the performances of the recent weeks where the Irish set piece has not covered itself in glory in particular the line out has faltered again, men like Paul O Connell, John Fogarty will earn their money trying to solve the issues that have dogged this campaign as well as the 6 Nations earlier in the year.
Ireland manged to get the wins against Australia and Japan while the set piece didn’t function and while that was good enough on those days you can be certain New Zealand will zone in on those issues and go after the line out and scrum to really try and drive home any weakness that may feel is there to be exploited.
Will Jordan will be in the New Zealand back 3 fresh from surpassing Doug Howlett’s try scoring record of 49 tries that stood for many years. He now has 50 tries in 56 caps.
While many All Blacks have tried Jordan has gone and done it while Beaudan Barrett is on 45 tries and can continue his own quest in trying to go beyond Will Jordan an interesting small sub plot over the next while as they face Ireland and then face South Africa on another tour in place of the Rugby Championship.
Ireland know they have a shot at doing the unthinkable by defeating New Zealand in Auckland and while many will think it will be another New Zealand win you can be certain Andy Farrell will not be saying that to his squad.
The performances of the last 2 weeks make that win highly unlikely but I said something like that in 2022 and look how that Tour ended !! It will take an almighty effort as has already been spoken of. It’s a last game of a very long season and history awaits if they can summon up one final big showing before a well-earned rest.
Here is the 23 I would select to face New Zealand on Saturday at 8.10am…
15 Hugo Keenan
14 Robert Balcounne
13 Garry Ringrose
12 Stuart Mc Closkey
11 Jamie Osbourne
10 Sam Prendergast
9 Jamison Gibson Park
8 Sean Jansen
7 Nick Timoney
6 Jack Conan
5 Tadgh Beirne
4 Joe Mc Carthy
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Dan Sheehan
1 Tom O Toole
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16 Ronan Kelleher
17 Billy Bohan
18 Thomas Clarkson
19 James Ryan
20 Josh Van Der Flier
21 Nathan Doak
22 Ciaran Frawley
23 Jacob Stockdale