The Irish have poured cold water, or more accurately cold beer, on any talk of a bitter rivalry between them and the All Blacks ahead of Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Paris.
Irish lock Tadhg Beirne shared some light on how the All Blacks reacted following last year’s home series defeat.
“Rugby is one of those games where when you go on to the field, you go to beat the crap out of each other for 80 minutes and when you step off it, you are very happy to grab a beer with your opposition number and enjoy the moments afterwards and it’s no different with New Zealand.
“One thing I will remember from New Zealand was after the last test when we had beaten them, we ran out of beer pretty quickly. But the New Zealand squad were quick to bring in their beer and leave us to continue celebrating. That’s respect, isn’t it?”