THERE’S USUALLY NOT too much material you can read into when a team announcement email land in the inbox.
However, earlier today one line jumped out on the release that accompanied the confirmed New Zealand matchday 23 for Saturday’s Test against Ireland in Dublin.
“We’ve watched Ireland’s development this year with interest,” read the words, attributed to New Zealand boss Ian Foster, “particularly through the latter part of the Six Nations and last week’s big win over Japan.”
For much of the past week, we’ve wondered if Ireland are actually heading in a new direction with their style of play, or if the offloads and intent on show against Japan will disappear in the face of defences which offer more resistance.
However, it sounds like Foster sees a genuine evolution in the Ireland team. A few hours after that emailed team announcement was sent, he sat down to talk through his selection and look ahead to Saturday’s game.
The42 asked Foster about that quote, and what he views as the key characteristics of an Andy Farrell-coached team.
“I don’t think I can classify it in words, but I think Ireland have got some characteristics themselves as a team over the last five or six years that haven’t changed,” Foster said.
“They’re well organised, they’re physical, they clearly understand their roles and they play accordingly.
“I think that aspect hasn’t changed, and that’s a positive thing when I say that about Irish rugby. I think they’ve been a quality team this year and getting better.
But I think what we are seeing is probably an expansion in ambition of what they want to do with the ball. They seem to be more at ease about taking opportunities wider and being comfortable playing like that.
“Credit to them, it just means you’ve got to open your eyes and be aware that they’ve got more threats in attack than perhaps they would have had 24 months ago.”
Looking at his own team, Foster certainly has no shortage of attacking options. This week he’s shuffled his backline, and that proved the main point of interest for the New Zealand media on the call.
With so much talent at his disposal, one of the regular challenges Foster faces is juggling those options accordingly.
This week, Beauden Barrett gets the nod ahead of Richie Mo’unga at 10, in what seemed to be the biggest call on his plate. Elsewhere, the versatile Rieko Ioane – who lined out on the wing against Wales and South Africa last month – moves back to centre, with Sevu Reece and Will Jordan filling the wing positions.
“He’s played really well at both wing and centre,” Foster said of Ioane. “He’s got work-ons in both positions each week because even if he starts in one, he’s likely to end up in the other during a game at some point.
It hasn’t complicated him in too many situations. Not too many players can demand a starting position in two positions. I think he’s shown great maturity in how he’s handled that, and it’s given us the opportunity to use him in different roles in different phases of the game, and certainly this is a game where we want to get ball in his hands really early if we can and get him running, and I can’t speak more highly of him.
“He’s had a great tour and he’s growing, he’s still got some work to do but delighted with his progress.”
As expected, Foster was also asked about Bundee Aki, James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park – the three New Zealand-born players who start for Ireland this weekend – and if they had the potential to push for a place in his squad if they hadn’t made the move to Ireland.
“All I’m going to say is that I guess they are Kiwis in one sense, but they’re Irish now. I don’t really want to talk too much about the opposition,” he replied.
“They are three people who have made a decision, they play for Ireland and what will be and what could have been is almost irrelevant.
“I think nowadays the rules are the rules and those three, like a number of others, have made decisions, and they’ve made a decision to be Irish.
“So there’s not much point speculation about whether they would have been good enough to make it in New Zealand or not. I don’t really want to spend any time on that because they are the ones that made the call.”
Bernard Jackman, Niamh Briggs, and Ciarán Kennedy join Murray Kinsella to discuss Ireland v All Blacks and the latest big story in Irish women’s rugby:
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