• Prop: ‘We have some new stuff we have not done before’•
Ireland wait for report on Aki ban before considering appealPreparing to face
New Zealand tends to keep defence coaches up all night. Since the last
World Cup, the holders have scored 267 tries in 49 Tests, armed with attacking invention only
Japan are able to rival.
The All Blacks have failed to score a try in only two of those matches, against the 2017 Lions in the second Test and in
Dublin last November when Ireland defeated them 16-9. The common denominator was Ireland’s Andy Farrell, the defence coach jettisoned by
England after the last World Cup, who is again plotting the downfall this weekend of a side whose last defeat in the tournament came in the 2007 quarter-final against France.