IRELAND BOSS ANDY Farrell said he feels the best is yet to come from his team after a comprehensive win over Scotland sent them into a World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand.
Farrell’s men will take on the All Blacks in Paris next Saturday night after completing a clean sweep of four wins from four to top Pool B, while also extending their winning streak to 17 games.
New Zealand knocked Ireland out of the last World Cup with a dominant quarter-final win in Tokyo, but Farrell believes his side can make history and reach a first-ever semi-final here in France.
“I don’t think, and neither do the team think, that we’ve played our best rugby yet,” said Farrell after the six-try 36-14 win over Scotland last night.
“We know where we want to go and what we’re trying to achieve. Will we ever get there? I don’t know.
“It’s days like next week that’s coming where we need to find out a little bit more about ourselves. These lads are certainly willing to do that.”
New Zealand were already talking about Ireland before Farrell’s side had even secured their quarter-final by beating the Scots, with fullback Beauden Barrett stating that the Kiwis would love to get revenge over the Irish for their series win last year.
Farrell was full of praise for Ian Foster’s Kiwis, who lost their opening pool game against World Cup hosts France but beat Namibia, Uruguay, and Italy in recent weeks to earn their quarter-final place.
“I think New Zealand are a fantastic side and for little old Ireland to be talked about in the same bracket as the All Blacks shows how far we’ve come as a rugby-playing nation,” said Farrell.
“The respect we’ve got for New Zealand is through the roof. The form they’ve got at this moment in time is top drawer and I’m sure that they will be relishing this fixture to try and put a few things right. It’s tough, it’s as tough as it gets.
“Two weeks ago, it was a tough game [against South Africa] and this one was knock-out type rugby so it gets a whole lot tougher next week against the All Blacks and hopefully they will need to be at their best to beat us as well.”
While Farrell said it was important for his players to enjoy last night’s victory by celebrating with their families, he’s keen to look forward as soon as possible.
There are injury concerns for Mack Hansen and James Ryan in particular, but Farrell wants to see energy from his players this week.
“We’ll treat this week, I’m sure once we recover properly, with a spring in our step because if you can’t get excited about what’s coming… this is proper living now, this is exactly where you want to be.
“These boys have been waiting for opportunities, big games to show what they’ve learned for a while now. It doesn’t get any bigger than next week so we’ll relish that.”
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