It’s the three-time champions taking on a team that’s never won at this stage of the competition, but for once Ireland appears to be peaking at exactly the right time in this competition.
New Zealand haven’t changed the way they play. They average the second-most carries of the teams in the top eight (134.8) as well as the most metres (752.5) and line breaks (16.0), and have beaten the most defenders on average per game (39.0). They also have the second-fastest ruck speed (3.43s) and the highest percentage of plays more than 30 metres away from their previous ruck (14%). They like to play fast, and they like to play with width.
Ireland won’t have it all their way in the set piece, either. Andy Farrell’s side has won the second-fewest scrums on average (5.3) for a success rate of (90%), while their line-out success rate of 81 per cent - they are averaging three line-outs lost per game - will raise a few eyebrows. Conversely, New Zealand has the best line-out success (98%) of any team in the quarters, losing just one line-out throughout the competition so far.
With that said Ireland is the number one team in the world for a reason. Firstly, they play in the right areas; they have the most red-zone entries (15.3) of all the teams, as well as the highest ratio of their possessions ending up in the opposition 22 (33%). They don’t kick away possession very much, either, doing so on average 23.3 times per game, trusting themselves to make their way into the opposition half with the ball in play.
Two areas that give Ireland that trust are the fact that they win on average the most turnovers per game of the top eight (5.3) and the fact that they average less than ten penalties per game overall (9.3). Such good discipline and the ability to win the ball back on the rare occasions they don’t have it already is what makes this Irish side so tough to break down.
“It has been said before but I think this team understands how important defence is to the overall success of the team,” defence coach Simon Easterby said. “We work incredibly hard on being disciplined and not giving sides any access.
“You can sense the feeling of excitement when the opposition has the ball. There is a chance for us to put a stop to their attack and take energy away from them.”
