PREVIEW | Ireland host the All Blacks for the first time since their 2018 triumph

Ireland have won two out of their last four encounters with the All Blacks, this will be New Zealand‘s first time playing in the Aviva Stadium since their 16-9 loss in 2018.

Ireland welcome the All Blacks to a sold out Aviva Stadium tomorrow night in their second fixture of the Autumn Nations Series. The All Blacks are fresh off of wins against Wales and Italy, which came after yet another triumph in the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship, where the All Blacks won five out of six games, only losing once to South Africa.

Despite Ireland’s shaky start to last years Six Nations, bouncing back from losses to Wales and France, Ireland found their stride with wins over Italy, Scotland and England, marking the true beginning of the Andy Farrell era. Now with a handsome win over Japan under the Irish belt, Farrell’s men can now test their skills once again against one of rugby’s greatest opponents.

Ireland and the All Blacks’ storied history began in 1905, when the first test match against the two nations took place. It took Ireland a lengthy 28 further fixtures before getting their first win over the Kiwi’s in 2016 in Chicago, their best result until then was a draw back in 1973.

However since Ireland’s maiden victory in 2016, the All Black’s have visited Dublin twice since, winning once. Yet despite enjoying a winning record over the All Blacks between 2016 and 2018, winning two games out of three, it all came crashing down for the Irish in the 2019 World Cup quarter finals, where Ireland lost to the All Blacks by a painful 46 points to 14.

Yet a lot has changed for both sides since their last encounter. After the World Cup, Ireland saw their defence coach Farrell be promoted to the head coach position and the same went for the All Blacks, as former assistant head coach Ian Foster was passed the torch by the legendary Steve Hansen.

Speaking ahead of the game, Ireland Head Coach Farrell shared his thoughts about coming up against the All Blacks:

“It’s a privilege to play against the best, we should embrace that, work towards it and keep pushing ourselves.

“What a time to be alive you know? To be an Irish rugby player to get the opportunity to play in front of a full house against the best team in the world, this is where you wanna be”

Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell

Some of the Irish players selected to face the All Blacks on Saturday will be facing some familiar faces on the opposition side. Many of Ireland’s starting 15 originally hail from New Zealand, but are eligible to play for Ireland due to World Rugby’s residency rules.

Players like James Lowe, Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park have all represented New Zealand based teams, with Lowe and Gibson-Park both previously representing New Zealand on the New Zealand Maori side. Munster’s Joey Carbery was even born in the New Zealand town of Dargaville to Irish parents, but moved home to Ireland when he was 11 years old.

Farrell has made just one change to the side which cruised through Japan last Saturday in Irelands Autumn Nations opener at the Aviva Stadium, with Ulster’s Ian Henderson rendering Munster’s Tadhg Beirne to the bench.

Take a look at both teams selected for the clash below:

Ireland match-day 23: 1. Andrew Porter 2. Ronan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Iain Henderson 5. James Ryan 6. Caelan Doris 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan 9. Jamison Gibson Park 10. Johnny Sexton (C) 11. James Lowe 12. Bundee Aki 13. Garry Ringrose 14. Andrew Conway 15. Hugo Keenan

Reserves: 16. Rob Herring 17. Cian Healy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Tadhg Beirne 20. Peter O’Mahony 21. Conor Murray 22. Joey Carbery 23. Keith Earls

All Blacks match-day 23: 1. Joe Moody 2. Codie Taylor 3. Nepo Laulala 4. Brodie Retallick 5. Samuel Whitelock (C) 6. Ethan Blackadder 7. Dalton Papalii 8. Ardie Savea 9. TJ Perenara 10. Beauden Barrett 11. Sevu Reece 12. Anton Lienert-Brown 13. Rieko Ioane 14. Will Jordan 15. Jordie Barrett

Reserves: 16. Dane Coles 17. Karl Tu’inukuafe 18. Tyrel Lomax 19. Tupou Vaa’i 20. Akira Ioane 21. Finlay Christie 22. Richie Mo’unga 23. David Havili

Ireland will host the All Blacks this Saturday November 13th at the Aviva Stadium, with kick-off set for 3:15pm.