All Blacks: Irish seek recipe to avoid disaster

Graham Henry.

England and Scotland tried to take the All Blacks on at their own expansive game and failed - Ireland will adhere to a more pragmatic rugby blueprint when attempting to stall New Zealand's latest Grand Slam campaign.

Ireland defence coach Les Kiss has indicated Ireland will attempt to slow the pace of the All Black juggernaut at Lansdowne Road on Sunday (NZT), no mean feat if it can be achieved.

Two years ago Ireland engaged in damage limitation at Croke Park and succumbed 22-3 and a similar kick-centric strategy from set piece to restart should again be the default position.

Kiss, a former Australian rugby league representative, said the Irish needed to avoid an unstructured game at all costs.

"If you look at the profile of their game, where they score most of their points, in the Tri-Nations 73 or 74 per cent of their tries came from unstructured play," he told The Irish Times newspaper.

"So, you need to play the game at a pace that doesn't suit them. If you kick long and give them quick throw-ins, you invite a new set of issues.

If you turn over the ball easily, you present them with the platforms that they like to launch from.

"You have to be pragmatic in what you try to do to actually take away the opportunities that they need to run.

"We need to get away from those stress points from where they love to hurt us from. They love a loose game, they can play from set-piece for sure, but it's around 72 per cent - from memory - that they scored from quick taps, quick throws and unstructured play. That part of their play is unbelievable."

The All Blacks have never lost to Ireland in 23 previous tests stretching back to 1905, a 10-10 draw at Dublin in 1973 remains the only aberration.

Considering Ireland had lost four straight before an unconvincing 20-10 win over Samoa last weekend, another All Black win seems a formality based on their glimpses of class at Twickenham and ominous performance a week later on Murrayfield.

Kiss admitted as much: "We're going into a test against the All Blacks who have every right to feel as confident as they are and they feel like they are going to win this game and score a lot of points."

- NZPA