{"id":803339,"date":"2026-07-16T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803339\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:00:09","slug":"kieran-read-what-ireland-do-the-best-which-can-expose-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/803339\/","title":{"rendered":"Kieran Read: What Ireland do the ‘best’ which can expose All Blacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Blacks captain Kieran Read insists that their upcoming clash against Ireland<\/a> will be a big step up from their previous two Nations Championship matches.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie\u2019s men have edged past France and comfortably defeated Italy, but Les Bleus were unable to field their best team.<\/p>\n

By contrast, despite a few injuries, Ireland<\/a> will name their best available team for the Eden Park encounter this weekend as they look to once again emerge victorious in New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s 2022 series victory<\/p>\n

Back in 2022, Andy Farrell\u2019s outfit claimed their first-ever series victory in the country after securing a 2-1 triumph in the three-Test tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a very good side and, yes, they\u2019ve had to change their game a little bit without [Johnny] Sexton, but they\u2019ve kept the ethos of Irish rugby,\u201d Read said on the GBRANZ podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do a pod system and they do it the best of anyone at international level because they have threats across the park, they bring two players out the back, so not just the one, and they run off that guy really well. They\u2019re so structure around that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a slight disconnect, which the All Blacks have had over the last couple of weeks, we\u2019ll get burnt there quite easily. Defensively, we\u2019ll have to be really good because the Irish are awesome [in attack].\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernard Jackman reveals where \u2018there\u2019s still doubts\u2019 over Sam Prendergast and why he expects All Blacks to try and exploit it<\/a><\/p>\n

While Ireland ended the Six Nations in positive fashion with four successive victories, including a dominant win over England at Twickenham, they have been less convincing at the start of the Nations Championship.<\/a><\/p>\n

They have managed to overcome the Wallabies and Japan, but the Irish have had issues in the set-piece with both the scrum and lineout malfunctioning.<\/p>\n

Where All Blacks can attack Ireland<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a chance for us to go at their scrum and potentially their lineout as well,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got good loosies and locks but inexperienced props, although Tadhg Furlong\u2019s still there. We\u2019ve got to put some pressure on, make [Dan] Sheehan, who is an outstanding hooker, work hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make them fight for all the things that are coming their way, so I would like our front-rowers to go at them and have a crack at them in the forwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will just be aiming for this one, so for them it\u2019s the end of their season, get a holiday for a couple of months after this \u2013 put everything on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe All Blacks at Eden Park, we\u2019ve seen enough in one-off occasions we can step up. You want your big players to step up, Ardie Savea to have a massive game, I think Codie Taylor will have another big game up front and our outside backs \u2013 Will Jordan, DMac (Damian McKenzie) \u2013 will step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis is a higher level than we\u2019ve played. France in the first game, they\u2019re a great side but without their best players and it wasn\u2019t as intense around the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis occasion is huge because of Eden Park. It\u2019s on par with what we\u2019ll go to with the intensity of a South Africa game.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ireland great describes All Blacks game as \u2018ultimate benchmark\u2019 with \u2018no excuses available\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks captain Kieran Read insists that their upcoming clash against Ireland will be a big step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,290527,229246,1736,44,760,85],"class_list":["post-803339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-kieran-read","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}