I’ve a hunch that there’ll be many a CRUNCH

JOE SCHMIDT is sure that it’s going to get hot and heavy at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow night.

Having guided Ireland through three clashes with his Kiwi countrymen in his five and a half years in charge, this could be his last.

Of course, the world’s number one and two ranked teams can meet in the World Cup quarter-finals or, indeed, in the final in just under a year’s time. Beyond that, however, Schmidt’s plans will remain unknown for another week or two.

There will be speculation either way depending on this result but all he’s sure about right now is that tomorrow’s clash will be “spiky” on the back of Ireland’s first ever win over the kingpins in 2016 – and the All Blacks’ revenge in Dublin a fortnight later.

“It’s inevitable because I think we have to physically front up in these sort of fixtures,” he said. “And, if you look back at 2016, I felt we really did.

“We’ve just got to be prepared for what they are going to bring, they’ve got a hot side out. When the game’s up and running it’s likely to be fairly manic.

“We know they’ll come after us in some areas because they did last time. They came at us off from the kick-off. There were some decisions made by the referee that day that befuddled everybody. I don’t think there’s any confusion with that, but at the same time, we’ve got to get out there and give as good as we get.

“And that’s what will make it a fairly spiky contest I would think.”

The narrative goes that the All Blacks blew away Ireland with a physical bombardment in their last meeting.

But as Schmidt points out there were just five points between the sides before Malakai Fekitoa’s winning try came 15 minutes from time.

“We had three of our leaders off the pitch in the first 20 minutes,” he said, referring to the concussed Robbie Henshaw and CJ Stander as well as hamstring injury victim Johnny Sexton.

“I was proud of the way the guys stuck at it in what was a really physical contest against a super All Black team, we put in a really good all performance.

“I thought we stepped up but you can feel that you weren’t too far away and it’s irrelevant.”

Speaking at his team announcement yesterday, Schmidt was effusive in his praise for All Blacks counterpart Steve Hansen, in particular the manner in which success has continued despite the loss of big leaders to retirement.

He also stated a desire to steer clear of indulging in the sort of mind games that the world champions – and Hansen – have used this week.

But he did throw a couple of hooks back, most noticably in defence of Bundee Aki who will be playing against his homeland.

Insisting he hadn’t seen the barbs, Schmidt quipped: “They’re not trying to play catch-up as much as us and they have had a little bit more time on their hands. I haven’t really had time to look.”

But the 53-year-old makes it clear what winning would mean.

“It’s always an achievement to beat the All Blacks, that’s why we limit ourselves to just once every 115 years – because we don’t want to get carried away with things,” he grinned. “When they first turned up in 1905 they were incredibly tough to knock over and I don’t think they’ve changed too much.

“Their depth of experience, the number of centurions – or guys with 70, 80 caps – it’s formidable.

“And it would be a huge feather in these players’ caps if they could topple them on Saturday.

“But it’s not something you can really prepare for. You can’t prepare for a result, you can only really prepare for a performance.”