FOR THE IRISH media dotted around Paris, this is turning into the World Cup of Google Maps. Over the past couple of weeks Ireland and their opponents have moved around various luxury bases on the outskirts of this sprawling city, ensuring our maps app becomes our comfort and security on long treks through strange, large suburbs. No matter how quiet the station or how remote the path, trust the maps.
This morning our destination was to the east of the city, with a late change to Ireland’s media schedule ensuring a healthy crew of us set out in search of the All Blacks on another beautiful, sunny morning. Somehow, we all arrived at the closest train station within minutes of each other, and proceeded to take different routes through a nearby park before reaching our destination. The 42 ended up on a picturesque stroll along a lake, where a pit stop for coffee resulted in a colleague’s request for almond milk being met with a confused expression. ‘Oui, almonde’, our barista declared when the coffees arrived, but his smile suggested otherwise.
Presumably the All Blacks are having no such difficulty in seeing their demands met at their new training base. Once our passes were approved and the gates opened, we entered a huge, multi-sport facility which is already getting athletes in shape ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics. Past the breakdancing and hockey hubs, we wait our turn before being allowed in to catch the last 15 minutes of this morning’s training session.
This is the second time The 42 has got a close look at New Zealand in recent weeks, and there was a notably different feel to things today. When we visited their Lyon base a fortnight ago, Joe Schmidt appeared to be running the show, vocally dishing out orders and steering the players through drills with a hands-on role. Today he was more on the periphery, heading to the sidelines after delivering a few words during a short team huddle and overseeing some ruck drills. The former Ireland boss knows he’s the centre of attention this week, so doesn’t need to draw any more eyes and ears on himself.
It’s just the way he likes it. Unlike the other New Zealand assistants, Schmidt doesn’t do press briefings, meaning his voice won’t be shaping the media narrative this week.
Yet his presence is a fascinating sub-plot ahead of Saturday’s box-office World Cup quarter-final at the Stade de France. Schmidt was just in the door with New Zealand when Ireland stormed to a 2-1 series win last summer, but now has a far greater influence on the way this team operates. Ireland have been keen to play down the significance of his inside knowledge, but no matter how much the team has evolved since Andy Farrell took over, Schmidt has detailed, comprehensive information on many of these Ireland players.
And over a year into his role as an All Black assistant coach, his new players are more up to speed with Schmidt’s way of thinking.
“Joe just sees the game in a very detailed view and I think especially with us backs, his work in sort of noticing trends in other teams’ attack and defence is what separates him,” explains New Zealand centre Rieko Ioane.
“And just the detail he goes into. I think for us, trying to find those one per-centers can be quite hard, but with Joe, he makes the view of the game a lot easier by the way he understands it. He has definitely helped us quite a bit.”
“I agree with Rieko. A lot of experience,” adds scrum-half Aaron Smith, who debuted against Ireland 11 years ago.
Always has clips to show you if you ask, so you gotta be careful what you ask him because it could cost you 20 minutes!
“For the last 18 months, I have really enjoyed connecting with him. As Rieko said, he sees little things in the game that isn’t anything extra. He sees the positives in your own skill-sets, and sort of doubles down on that. A lot of the stuff is a lot around just effort.”
New Zealand have been happy to talk up their opponents this week, but Ioane and Smith both stopped short of joining the ‘revenge’ narrative set be Beauden Barrett last Friday, before Ireland had even booked their place in the quarter-finals. Still, there were small insights into their mindset during today’s media session, with both players and forwards coach Jason Ryan all describing Saturday’s knock-out tie as a ‘final’.
“Last year matters in a sense of taking the learnings, but I believe we’re a totally different team to July last year,” Smith continues. “We’ve got new coaches, and as a group that series really galvanised us and I can’t wait for Saturday to see what happens.”
“I think there’s always going to be that hurt (from the series defeat in New Zealand),” Ioane adds, “but this game on Saturday isn’t going to be about the emotion of last year, it’s going to be about what we’ve built so far in this tournament and as Nug (Smith) touched on, last year doesn’t matter when it comes to finals footie because the team on the day will be the one, so we’re just all excited for that.”
Both teams have very different forms of history on the line. As we all well know, an Ireland win would see them reach the semi-finals for the first time. Small beer for New Zealand, whose quarter-final defeat to France in 2007 stands as the All Blacks’ earliest World Cup exit.
“We aren’t ever scared to lose,” Ioane says. “If there is any sort of questions on our belief then that’s unwavering because we know what we have in this group. For myself, the fear of losing doesn’t ever cross my mind. The motivation of this group and the energy we get off each other is motivation enough. We don’t like to take a glass-half-empty view on things.”
Smith frames the game around what can be gained, rather than lost.
“My energy is pushed more towards opportunity. The energy of what we can control. If you are held down by the weight of the past then you won’t be able to do anything, you won’t be able to play well. You will be too scared to do anything, to try things, to trust your instincts. Being free and energised within the team and there is plenty of intent so I don’t think there is the burden of statistics on us like that. It is a final of a World Cup for us and we are ready to go.”
And yet, despite Ireland’s irresistible form over the last two years, it’s strange to hear some of the New Zealand media refer to their team as underdogs. They may have the greater history in the competition, but Ireland head into the game as the world’s top-ranked side. On Saturday that tag will truly be put to the test.
“They’ve earned that right,” says Smith. “Their record in the last two years has really proved that but we’re at a World Cup, we’re playing in a final and it’s all on the line. History is history, and history is going to get created on Saturday, and we’ll see who comes out on top.”
With that, our afternoon in the New Zealand camp comes to an end. A convoy of golf carts delivers us to the main gate again, and we retrace our steps back to the station and into the heart of Paris. A sportswear shop has a large poster of Beauden Barrett in the window. The current New Zealand squad might look a little more human than some of their all-conquering predecessors, but the All Blacks are still the biggest show in town.
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