![\"16](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024abfc-614.jpg\"\/)
\nTadhg Beirne moves to the back row<\/p>\n
Recent history suggests Ireland have delivered their best performances at the end of exhausting seasons.<\/p>\n
Andy Farrell is just brilliant at getting teams right at the right time. You look back to 2022, Ireland beat New Zealand in Wellington to win a series.<\/p>\n
In 2024, after an exhausting World Cup season, you’ll remember the Ciar\u00e1n Frawley dropgoal at the death in Durban when Ireland beat South Africa, who were world champions.<\/p>\n
So they have history of performing and pulling out their best performance at the end of a season when people don’t expect it.<\/p>\n
New Zealand’s record in Auckland – the All Blacks are unbeaten in 52 Tests at Eden Park since 1994 – is incredible, but that can become a burden too. Look, but this is a new New Zealand side. Scott Robertson was let go last year.<\/p>\n
Dave Rennie has brought in a lot of younger players, a huge amount of the Hurricanes side who smashed everybody in Super Rugby this year.<\/p>\n
The half-backs of Cam Roigard, Ruben Love at 10, he’s only seven caps. Of course, you’ve Jordie Barrett at 12, who everybody remembers from his stint in Leinster, he’s playing outstanding.<\/p>\n
But really for me, it’s up front.<\/p>\n
Rennie has surprised a lot of people in picking Patrick Tuipulotu, a massive, 22 stone second row, and moved Tupou Vaa’i, who’s a brilliant, fantastic athletic forward. He’s picked him in the back row, but he’s played there only once.<\/p>\n
\nTadhg Beirne moves to the back row<\/p>\n
I think it’s probably the first time a New Zealand side have adjusted their selection to take on Ireland,<\/a> where they’re strong, to take on the likes of Tadhg Beirne, Joe McCarthy, and James Ryan in a lineout that has been sort of malfunctioning over the past couple of games.<\/p>\n They just about got over France and struggled against Italy last week, where there was only four points in it at half-time. So they’re a developing, new side.<\/p>\n But I have to say they’re playing a magnificent brand of rugby. They still have the likes of Will Jordan on the wing, Barrett, as I mentioned, Ardie Savea, captain in the back row.<\/p>\n So I expect New Zealand to win, the whole Eden Park thing, the pressure will be on them.<\/p>\n Despite two wins from two, Ireland haven’t been convincing, they’ve been short of their best. I think they’ll perform really well, but I’m expecting New Zealand to come out on top.<\/p>\n Beating New Zealand, of course, would be the best way of rounding off this season, but I just don’t see it happening.<\/p>\n Donal Lenihan was speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s Morning Ireland.<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent history suggests Ireland have delivered their best performances at the end of exhausting seasons. Andy Farrell is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-554357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}