New Zealand v Ireland - 18/07/2026

[Leonormous Boozer]

(Irish time)

This is more than likely going to be a sad watch for me. But there's a wee bit of hope.

 

[O’Doyle Rules]

I think a proper beat down for Ireland inbound

 

[Groundhog]

Thanks to our grand logstical conspiracy allowing us 8 hours of sleep a night and our institutionlised doping programme (that we copied from the Boks), New Zealand don't stand a chance. If its close at half time I presume Ardie Savea will be disappeared by a WR compliance squad.

In all seriousness, think we could ship a decent defeat here. Think new Zealand are the better side at the moment anyway, and add Eden Park to that I don't give us much of a chance. Be happy enough if we don't ship injruies and keep it reasonably close.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Thanks to our grand logstical conspiracy allowing us 8 hours of sleep a night and our institutionlised doping programme (that we copied from the Boks), New Zealand don't stand a chance. If its close at half time I presume Ardie Savea will be disappeared by a WR compliance squad.

In all seriousness, think we could ship a decent defeat here. Think new Zealand are the better side at the moment anyway, and add Eden Park to that I don't give us much of a chance. Be happy enough if we don't ship injruies and keep it reasonably close.

We did **** up. Considering we run world rugby from the shadows, surely it would have made more sense to go to Japan and them make NZ follow us there.


I think our pack will cause them trouble like November. If Prendergast can pick them apart and we keep best XV on the pitch it might get interesting but their defence can be mean so despite seeing a route to victory I'm not sure we have the engine to get there.

 

[ChicagoKid]

Game of the summer series for me.

Wouldn’t shock me to see Ireland pull a historic upset. All Blacks lacking defensive sharpness right now. The question is whether Sam and the boys can constantly exploit that?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

(Irish time)

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Would be needlessly confusing if I said Faroe Islands or Portuguese time and Ghana doesn't follow daylight savings so that'd be wrong.

 

[OllyM97]

There is a weird part of me that thinks Ireland could actually win this. It’s not very often in recent years that they’ve gone into a match as big underdogs - there’s still enough class in that Irish side to at the very least keep it close.

 

[Saintjay]

Absolutely no way Ireland run world rugby. Tempted to start a natty or not thread where we can rank players on drug usage.

As for the game a four hour flight can be murder on the back and equilibrium. Expect a narrow All Blacks win.

 

[Groundhog]

A good compromise might be if we refer to future events in Irish time and we can refer to events that happened in the past as English time as that's where most English people like to live anyway!

 

[Demfad]

Farrell/Sexton have said that they have goals. I think this might be one of them. We will have a few set plays for this. We might see more deception at the line as versus England in Twickers. All that said NZ will be improving and the French result against Aussie showed that NZ/France was higher quality than Aussie/Ireland. Assuming we are up to the required intensity we will run it close. But NZ are scoring a little too many from broken play to be outscored by us.

This is definitely a target match for Ireland though. Hopefully they have a few things up the sleeve.

Note: if we don't get at least a point here then we behind France and likely Scotland and possibly England going into November.
(Scotland may yet rue allowing Argentina that late flourish if France edge them to a final. )

 

[ShropshireAllBlack]

Anyone suggesting anything other than a comprehensive NZ win on this thread is being added to my list of wind up merchants. The top 3 ( SA, NZ & Fra) are significantly ahead of the chasing pack. And with the Irish injuries/non-tourers, I don’t think the Irish travelling party are even the best of that chasing pack. Any points gained by Ireland in this match should be considered a windfall at best.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

SA - gap - 6n France - gap - NZ - gap - Ireland is how I see it.

I think the gap between us and SA / France is genuinely too large to beat them in 80 mins recently.

I don't think the same with NZ, we could have beaten them in November but for Beirne getting a red card and still should have except Crowley had possibly his worst game in green and we couldn't put points on the board as a result.

Don't think it's that likely, we win one on five at best but give me this game over France or SA 10/10 times.

 

[mackerzz]

I do feel like this will be a massive test. Ireland may be struggling a little, but the All Blacks have only just started with a new Tenure

 

[Demfad]

Anyone suggesting anything other than a comprehensive NZ win on this thread is being added to my list of wind up merchants. The top 3 ( SA, NZ & Fra) are significantly ahead of the chasing pack. And with the Irish injuries/non-tourers, I don’t think the Irish travelling party are even the best of that chasing pack. Any points gained by Ireland in this match should be considered a windfall at best.

You are well back in third. Barely beat France B. Your arrogance is from a bygone age for your team. Similar to the nosnense pre the 2022 tour, and the "catacysmic, apolalyptic" autopsies were funny.
I expect NZ to win, but Ireland have targetted this and can win. Italy were better for a half. Italy are good, but not that good.

Edit: I gather youre an Ireland fan. Honour decrees that I leave my gullibility for all to see.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

You are well back in third. Barely beat France B. Your arrogance is from a bygone age for your team. Similar the to nosnense pre the 2022 tour.
I expect NZ to win, but Ireland have targetted this and can win. Italy were better for a half. Italy are good, but not that good.

He's an Ireland fan lol

 

[Demfad]

He's an Ireland fan lol

This place is full of wind up merchants. The quality is good though!

 

[big ginger 8]

Team announced at 10:30 tonight. Supposedly a full deck to choose from be interesting to see of Baloucoune comes straight back in and if that effects the make up of the bench.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Team announced at 10:30 tonight. Supposedly a full deck to choose from be interesting to see of Baloucoune comes straight back in and if that effects the make up of the bench.

FIFA will be ragin if the match goes to Extra Time and everyone switches off for the team announcement.

 

[big ginger 8]

FIFA will be ragin if the match goes to Extra Time and everyone switches off for the team announcement.

Such is the reality of playing with the big dawgs.

 

[mackerzz]

This weekend's losers;

1 Tom O'Toole
2 Dan Sheehan
3 Tadhg Furlong
4 Joe McCarthy
5 James Ryan
6 Tadhg Beirne
7 Josh van der Flier
8 Jack Conan
9 Jamison Gibson-Park
10 Sam Prendergast
11 Jimmy O'Brien
12 Stuart McCloskey
13 Garry Ringrose
14 Robert Baloucoune
15 Hugo Keenan

16 Ronan Kelleher
17 Jeremy Loughman
18 Thomas Clarkson
19 Nick Timoney
20 Sean Jansen
21 Craig Casey
22 Ciaran Frawley
23 Bundee Aki

 

[mackerzz]

Initial word coming out of the abs camp is that Vaii will be on blindside, and Patty T starting in lock.... I fuxing hope not, though

 

[Kiwiwomble]

i really stuggle with Patty T....not sure hes ever really stepped up in the black jersey...and yet keeps getting runs after each of his injuries

 

[mackerzz]

i really stuggle with Patty T....not sure hes ever really stepped up in the black jersey...and yet keeps getting runs after each of his injuries

Agree. feel like he is way overrated for some reason. just because he his big, dosent mean he's good

 

[mackerzz]

1. Ethan de Groot (42)
2. Codie Taylor (108)
3. Tyrel Lomax (50)
4. Josh Lord (14)
5. Patrick Tuipulotu (56)
6. Tupou Vaa'i (46)
7. Luke Jacobson (26)
8. Ardie Savea (108) (Captain)
9. Cam Roigard (19)
10. Ruben Love (7)
11. Josh Moorby (1)
12. Jordie Barrett (80)
13. Quinn Tupaea (25)
14. Will Jordan (56)
15. Damian McKenzie (76)

16. Asafo Aumua (21)
17. Xavier Numia (1)
18. Fletcher Newell (36)
19. Anton Segner (1)
20. Peter Lakai (9)
21. Cortez Ratima (23)
22. Anton Lienert-Brown (89)
23. Caleb Clarke (34)

 

[Kiwiwomble]

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

This weekend's losers;

1 Tom O'Toole
2 Dan Sheehan
3 Tadhg Furlong
4 Joe McCarthy
5 James Ryan
6 Tadhg Beirne
7 Josh van der Flier
8 Jack Conan
9 Jamison Gibson-Park
10 Sam Prendergast
11 Jimmy O'Brien
12 Stuart McCloskey
13 Garry Ringrose
14 Robert Baloucoune
15 Hugo Keenan

16 Ronan Kelleher
17 Jeremy Loughman
18 Thomas Clarkson
19 Nick Timoney
20 Sean Jansen
21 Craig Casey
22 Ciaran Frawley
23 Bundee Aki

We've put wingers on the wings.

Bold move, let's see how it plays out.

 

[big ginger 8]

Good to see JOB getting rewarded. Make up of the bench is interesting but Jansen and Timoney should bring a lot of punch.

 

[ChicagoKid]

Tempted to pick Ireland here. If any team can beat the ABs at Eden Park, it’s them.

The scrum is the only thing giving me real pause. Plus, Nic Berry really lets the breakdown turn into carnage, which doesn’t help Ireland.

 

[Demfad]

Tempted to pick Ireland here. If any team can beat the ABs at Eden Park, it’s them.

The scrum is the only thing giving me real pause. Plus, Nic Berry really lets the breakdown turn into carnage, which doesn’t help Ireland.

A breakdown mess might suit us tomorrow. We slow their ball down it helps us, and also with a slower game there should be less transitions for NZ to exploit.