The All Blacks will likely face Ireland in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup after they defeated the defending champion Springboks 13-8 at Stade de France in Saint-Denis this morning.
Ireland extended their test-win streak to 16 against South Africa and look set up to top Pool B, boding well for them avoiding fellow European powerhouses France in the next stage of the tournament and instead likely meeting the three-time champion All Blacks.
The winners of Pool A, which features the All Blacks, France, Italy, Uruguay and Namibia, will play the runners-up in Pool B - now likely to be South Africa. France currently lead Pool A with 13 points, followed by Italy on 10, and New Zealand with five. New Zealand face against the Italians on Saturday and are expected to win comfortably. Should that come to fruition, it would take an unlikely French loss in their last pool match to Italy on October 7, for the Kiwis not to finish the pool second.
It comes after the Irish claimed a historic series win over the All Blacks last year with a 32-22 victory in Wellington in July 2022, the fourth loss in five tests at the time. New Zealand won the first of the three tests in the series (42-19 in Auckland) but Ireland got the better of the All Blacks in Dunedin (23-12) and Wellington (32-22).