After all the hype, here’s the rugby showdown the world wants to see
“Beauden does [what he does] because he is such a threat himself — you can’t leave him with any space at all.
“Johnny creates space because of his timing and his acumen. I’m not saying that Beauden Barrett doesn’t have that. I think that it’s just a real strength of Johnny’s.”
Schmidt has made four changes from the side that beat Argentina last week, with Rob Kearney’s expertise under the high ball coming in at full-back after a shoulder injury and Garry Ringrose recovered from a hip injury to slot in at centre.
Connacht’s Kieran Marmion continues to keep Murray’s seat warm, while Dan Leavy returns in the back row and Devin Toner is recalled at lock.
The All Blacks are missing the injured Sonny Bill Williams, who went off last week with a shoulder injury, so Ryan Crotty picks up where he left off after coming off the bench at centre in that 16-15 win over England.
Ominously for the Irish, and the rest of the planet, Hansen says his side are bang on the road to make it three World Cups wins on the spin after their victories in 2011 and 2015.
“We are in a pretty similar situation to where we were in 2014,” said Hansen. “We still managed to win a lot of games and we’re doing the same thing this year. From a Rugby World Cup point of view, we’re on track.”
Williams, who in a past life won the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association Heavyweight championship, might be injured but he has got a ringside ticket to the biggest fight in town this weekend.
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