Reuters
Andy Farrel. [Source: Reuters]
Andy Farrell concedes that Ireland has suffered from an inferiority complex in the past but believes his team are ready to embrace the challenge of being the best in the world.
On Saturday, the top-ranked Irish face a major challenge to those ambitions in the World Cup quarter-finals when they take on three-time world champions New Zealand, long the benchmark for test rugby teams.
Ireland came into the 2019 World Cup ranked number one in the world but were hammered 46-14 by the All Blacks in the quarter-finals to retain their unenviable record of never having won a knockout game at the global tournament.
Although Ireland could match the top-tier record for winning streaks with an 18th straight victory on Saturday, Farrell conceded that Ireland’s miserable record in World Cup knockouts might come into his players’ heads at some stage.
Farrell has made it clear that Ireland has a huge amount of respect for New Zealand, who have spent 743 weeks on top of the world rankings with a target on their backs since the ratings system was introduced in 2003.
The former England dual code international said Ireland was learning to embrace even that element of being top dogs.
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