By coming out of an extremely tough group unbeaten, Ireland confirmed that they have the means to achieve their ambitions. The Shamrock XV are on a 17-game winning streak and have not lost since an opening defeat on their 2022 summer tour of New Zealand. Tour that the men in green will win 2 victories to 1.
To discover
- World Cup 2023: Fixtures and results
- World Cup 2023: Rankings by Groups
As luck would have it, it is these same New Zealanders who will face the Irish this Saturday in Saint-Denis (21 p.m.) to play for a place in the last four. A stage of the competition that Ireland have never reached before. To have any hope of lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy on October 28, Andy Farrell's men will also have to face their own demons.
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Four years ago, in Japan, the All Blacks had already unceremoniously put an end to the Irish ambitions, with a score of 46 to 14... even though Ireland were on a run of 2 wins in 3 matches against the same opponents. "There's no bigger game than playing New Zealand in the quarter-finals of a World Cup," said Simon Easterby, Ireland's defence coach. We've been there before and we've been beaten to the punch. We learned a lot from 2019, even though it was a different staff and team. There are a lot of similarities between their team and ours. This game will undoubtedly be an important factor for Saturday's game.
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Four years earlier, in 2015, the team was already a favourite. They were on the back of two consecutive victories in the Six Nations Tournament and had beaten a (small) team from France in the pools. But she found a dominant and humiliating Argentina on her way. After a one-sided 43-20 loss, the Irish once again returned home prematurely.
There's no point in going back through the competition, it would be a long litany of wasted hopes. Just remember that the year they came closest to reaching the semi-finals, in 1991, in a home game at their home ground of Lansdowne Road, a try from Australian fly-half Michael Lynagh wiped out an entire nation in the 79th minute (19-18 defeat).
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It is true that the results of past World Cups do not in any way prejudge the achievements to come. And in Dublin, everyone wants to believe it: this time, it's the right one. "We've been through so much in the last four years," says Esterby. The guys who played in 2019 will have gained experience and understanding around how to approach and adapt to big games. But the new blood that has arrived since 2019 has also had incredible experiences over the past couple of years.
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To do so, the New Zealanders must first be eliminated for the first time in their history. Reading the statistics can give them confidence, as they are on a two-game winning streak against them. Even better, if you look at the last eight meetings since 2016, the Irish have won five times. This record is all the more flattering given that before these eight games, the Irish team had never beaten the Blacks.
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In terms of roster, it will be similar to our victorious tour in 2022," said Simon Easterby. We won that series, but the two teams were very close to each other. For us too, the squad is almost the same, because we haven't made a lot of changes compared to the team we fielded at the time, and even compared to the one that faced them in November 2021.
»Nothing seems likely to frighten Ireland this year, least of all the specters of quarter-finals they have lost over the past three decades. But, as well as facing the ghosts of their past, Ireland will face Joe Schmidt, the New Zealand assistant coach who coached the Shamrock XV for eight years. The Irish owe him the 2014, 2015 tournaments, and the 2018 Grand Slam. He, better than anyone, knows the curse of the greens in the World Cup finals: he is the one who has conceded more than 40 points in the two quarter-finals he has played.
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One last downside. To be world champions, Ireland need to play three more high-level matches. After very big clashes against South Africa and Scotland (not to mention Tonga), it will be necessary to face a team less physically marked by its pool matches (apart from their inaugural defeat, the All Blacks have been walking for a month).
At the very beginning of the competition, the former coach of the XV of France, Philippe Saint André, confided to us: "The Irish are favourites, but they are not used to chaining more than two high-level matches. During the Tournament, there is always a week's break. I think the back-to-back South Africa, Scotland and then the quarter-finals will be very difficult for them..." The first elements of the answer will be given this Saturday from 21 p.m.