Andy Farrell delighted ‘little old’ Ireland are in same bracket as All Blacks ahead of quarter-finals

PARIS – Andy Farrell said for “little old Ireland” to be in “the same bracket” as their Rugby World Cup quarter-final opponents New Zealand shows how far the Irish have come as a rugby nation.

Farrell was speaking after his side showed why they are ranked No. 1 in the world as they

crushed Scotland 36-14

in their final Pool B match at the Stade de France on Saturday.

It sets up a rematch with the All Blacks, the three-time World Cup winners who thrashed Ireland at the same stage in 2019. Ireland, though, recorded a historic Series win in New Zealand in 2022.

Farrell is bidding to take the Six Nations Grand Slam champions to new territory and reach a World Cup semi-final for the first time.

The All Blacks, however, have begun to show some scintillating form in the pool matches despite an opening defeat by hosts France.

“New Zealand are a fantastic side,” said Farrell, a 48-year-old Englishman. “But for little old Ireland to be talked about in the same bracket shows how far we have come as a rugby nation.

“Our respect for them is through the roof, their form is top drawer at the moment. They will be relishing this fixture to try and put a few things right.”

Farrell warned there is more to come from his team. “I don’t think and neither do the team think that we have played our best rugby,” he said. “We know where we want to go and what we want to achieve.

“Will we ever get there? I don’t know. But it’s days like next week that are coming when we need to find out a bit more about ourselves and these lads are more than willing to do that.”

Ireland, who have never won a knockout match at a World Cup, dismantled a Scottish side also looking to advance to the knockout stages, scoring early and scoring often to extend their winning streak to 17 straight games.

They had to get through a period of sustained pressure from the Scots after their first try, however, and Farrell thought the way they held firm then struck back at the other end was the key to the match.

“When you see how we were clinical and add how we were defending, it is a shot in the arm for us and a hammer blow for the other team,” Farrell said.

There were a few injuries to concern Farrell, however, with wingers Mack Hansen and James Lowe forced off the pitch and lock James Ryan needing attention.

“Mack went off with a HIA (head injury assessment) and felt his calf straight away, so we got him off,” he said. “James Ryan has a bit of a knock on his wrist that we need to assess more, so we will see how he is.

“James Lowe got a bang in the eye, it shut and he couldn’t see much, his vision was coming back towards the end of the game, which is good.”

Ireland’s Northern Hemisphere rivals England had a much tougher time on Saturday. They scraped home against a superb Samoa side, but coach Steve Borthwick believes it was just the test they needed ahead of the quarter-finals.

It was a sub-par showing as a Danny Care try seven minutes from full time gave England an 18-17 victory they barely deserved, but was enough to complete four wins in Pool D and momentum going into a likely knockout game against Fiji.

“Immense credit to Samoa, they played brilliantly, like it was their World Cup final. They forced us into a lot of errors,” said Borthwick. “But looking to next week, we wanted a tough test and we got it. The players got hold of it on the pitch and found a way to get the result.

“We were put under pressure and there were periods where we weren’t of the required standard.”

Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua said it was no coincidence that his team showed their best form in their fourth match but it was their struggles earlier in the tournament that condemned them to an early World Cup exit.

“That was a tough one,” he said. “Proud is an understatement, we were pretty dominant in most facets. I thought we were able to expose some space, we managed to assert our game and stop England’s game – until about 70 minutes.

“I thought we deserved more today but there is a lot to look at in terms of getting here and our preparation. Once we’re here, it’s not a coincidence that we are playing our best by the fourth game. We need to look at our programme internally and on the global scale, so we can have these tough matches against Tier 1 teams. There is a lot of work to do.”

Samoa came into the tournament in an upbeat state of mind after pushing Ireland all the way in a 17-13 defeat in their final warmup game.

They looked a little rusty in dismissing Chile 43-10 in their opening game and then went down without much of a fight 19-10 to Argentina.

The big blow, however, was losing 28-22 to Japan where a red card for Ben Lam early in the second half left them up against it.

“Reflecting on it, I’ve seen a win and two great performances but two games where we should have been better,” said Mapusua.

“We’ve shown that with a bit more time together, we can be pretty confident at this level. But that’s a resource we don’t have with players scattered across the globe.” REUTERS, AFP