Andy Farrell desperately wants to lay down a marker, bash the All Blacks, kill the idea Ireland are pushovers until the end of days
Ireland-New Zealand 2024: a story of lost and lost again World Cup quarter-finals, revenge, and one man's magnificent obsession, will be fascinating - guaranteed
Ireland and the All Blacks, Dublin 2024 - take your pick as to your favourite movie with the word 'Kill' in it.
There is some great celluloid, Natural Born Killers (1994), The Killers (1946), Kill Bill (2003), The Killing Fields (1985) even To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) all multi-award winning and fantastic entertainment.
Because Ireland-New Zealand (2024), set for release tomorrow night November 8th, will match them; a story of lost and lost again World Cup quarter-finals, revenge, and one man's magnificent obsession, will be fascinating - guaranteed.
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Have you met Man of Steel, Andy Farrell? By day a mild-mannered rugby coach, by night a man who dreams atonement and by night who channels revenge and vendetta.
Speaking yesterday the by-day Farrell calmly dismissed the dramas and battles of previous All Blacks games - but he didn't mention the fact he disappeared from view for almost three months after the 2024 Rugby World Cup.
Myself, Bundee Aki and, indeed, Michael Cheika all had a great time at the 2023 World Rugby Awards in Paris at the back end of the Rugby World Cup...
Farrell who was the winner of Coach of the Year was a no-show - Aki collected his award!
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Yesterday the Ireland coach revealed a team primed simply to kill, to win. He doesn't want any prisoners, one aim being to get into the All Blacks heads that Ireland aren't simply some glass ceiling side, pushovers at every World Cup.
Shoot the New Zealanders now and if they are falling slowly to the ground take out the Chicago violin, load the drum, and keep machine-gunning.
Consider this: Almost all of the Ireland starting team were involved in the Paris quarter-final which makes it hard to think this isn't a side chiselled in hurt, losing out, of figurative and literal loss.
It is surely an unusual age profile with seven thirty-somethings, six players past their 26th birthday and four of the replacements past their 34th birthday (for the record sub Jamie Osborne is 22, Joe McCarthy is 23 and Jack Crowley is 24).
A selection that keeps the focus on tomorrow night's result, certainly not on RWC 2027.
The coach, with just this set of four games to come before going off on Lions duty which will cause him to miss the 2025 Six Nations, says RWC 2027 preparation is, nonetheless, well in hand.
That time is not likely to become a thief here: “No. We know what we’ve done, we’ve been doing it and progressing it for the last five years. We know where we’re going, how we will continue to strive to keep getting better in that regard.
"I have full faith in everyone that’s involved in that It is what it is. You can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat and throw people in if they’re not ready. It’s a big Test match. You like to coordinate on what’s in front of you and what you’ve got.
“We are not South Africa or England or New Zealand in terms of there being thousands of players out there that you can just throw in and see how it goes. That’s not the way it is here.
“Look after the here and now, the medium term is always around the corner and there’s always planning in and around all that and the long term can look after itself.”
It just Farrell wants a stop along the way, Dublin 2024, to put his foot on the All Black throats and make sure they remember it.
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