Ant Strachan: Former All Black previews All Blacks clash against Ireland in Dublin

The Irish have a chance for revenge against the All Blacks for last year’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinal.

The All Blacks will go to Dublin missing Beauden Barrett and Codie Taylor through injury, while Ethan de Groot has been omitted for failing to meet team standards.

Ireland will also be looking to get one over Rieko Ioane, after the midfielder got into a social media spat with Irish legend Johnny Sexton over the fallout from the quarterfinal, which then stretched into his book.

Former All Black Ant Strachan joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Dupless, it's a really big rugby game for us
tomorrow morning our time. The Irish will get the chance
at revenge because remember the All Blacks knock them out
of the World Cup and Strawn as a former All
Black and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A and afternoon, Heather, how are you? Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah, I'm good. It's going to be tough for us though,
isn't it because we've got Body and Cody out with
the injuries.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I guess those force changes. With l Moore and
McKenzie coming into those two critical spots, we're probably the
only changes that the All Backs were going to make.
But you know, by all accounts they both contributed significantly
when they came on against the English. So a pretty
settled look about this All Black side. Though.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Do you think that Damien McKenzie has proved his placement?
Has he convinced you in that position?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
My honest answers, probably no, not yet. He does add
immense value coming off the bench, and I think there's
been a lot of focus on what numbers sixteen to
twenty three do with this All Black team, particularly at
the back end of games, and he does really well
coming off bench. Be a legitimate starter and you know,
to encapsulate all the critical things you need from a

(01:06):
pivot at number ten. I think he's still missing something
when it comes to an international level in terms of
his consistency. So still some work to do in that regard.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Hey, this sextem thing, is this a thing like has
he got inside their heads? Or is just a bit
of fun?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh look, there's a whole lot of versions to this,
aren't there. I mean there was a probably a little
bit of nastiness around it initially, just frustrations born out,
you know, at the height of a World Cup quarter final,
lots of pressure on both teams, particularly the Irish, and
you know that probably was there for a little while.
But I think, you know, rugby plays in general move
on pretty quickly, so I don't think it's been a

(01:44):
major issue. But yeah, we never really know because individuals
react differently to certain things. So what we will what
we do know who is that this is going to
be real spicy this game, because you know, the Irish
are playing at home, they've got a point to prove
and always very tough. But I mean they've been so
consistent on the global scale two, you know, So I
mean that arguably the other favorites coming into tomorrow morning.

(02:06):
So yeah, it's going to be a wonderful test match.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, good stuff. Hey, have you got any gossip? What
it is that Ethan de group did?

Speaker 2 (02:14):
No? Not at all. Unfortunately, I'm an old thing now,
a lot of those things escape me these days.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
We're all out of the loop and if we found out,
would probably just be very jealous that he managed to
get up to something fun and thank you very much,
appreciate it. And straw and for more All Black, for
more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
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