Mack eyes All Blacks scalp

IRELAND must embrace the opportunity of making history against New Zealand, says fit-again wing Mack Hansen.

The visitors have never won on All Black territory and continued their barren run last weekend as the hosts cruised to a 42-19 win. Many have written off Ireland’s chances of an unlikely series win, but Hansen urged his team to rise to the challenge in Dunedin today.

‘We’re not here just to take part. We want to get a win and be the first team to do it,’ he said. ‘That’s always a nice thing to have on our shoulder, we’ve got nothing to lose and New Zealand rarely lose over here, so more pressure on them. ‘Everybody’s definitely written us off straight away. We had a very good Six Nations and autumn Tests leading up to this, so people can say what they want to say.’ Mistakes proved costly for Ireland in that opening defeat in Auckland, which the 24-year-old was forced to watch in isolation following a positive Covid test. Now feeling ‘100 per cent’, the Australia-born speed merchant, who returns at the expense of Keith Earls in Ireland’s only change, believes his side will give a much better account of themselves. ‘It’s just what you can control,’ Hansen said. ‘All the errors, they feed off those, so if we can bring those down it’s going to make for a lot closer game. ‘Our attack, I thought, was pretty good. It’s just about getting it down over the line.’

Kick-off: 8.05am.

on Sky Sports Main Event.