Ireland's mood a bit more positive

The preparations wound down, the phoney war continued (proof of which was a minor red herring about banning the Haka which will be big news back in New Zealand) and the kick-off can't come quick enough. The next day is the longest day.

It's perhaps a measure of the work already done on the training field that the Irish squad took yesterday off. Distraction came by way of a transfer from Limerick to the Killiney Castle Hotel - a quieter, more restful and remote break from tradition. Today offers another one, for the squad will make a goodwill visit to that renowned football academy, St Joseph's Boys in Sallynoggin, before walking Lansdowne Road.

"The preparations have gone as well as we would have liked them to," said Brian Ashton before hinting at a slight change in attitude among the Irish squad. "We sat down on Tuesday and it's been well documented that we've been realistic about what might happen on Saturday but we're on the more positive side of our approach at the moment and we hope to build on that before the kick-off."

Ashton dismissed any notions that the changes in the All Blacks' line-up have disrupted either team's preparations or tactics. Nonetheless he conceded that the selection of Andrew Blowers ahead of Josh Kronfeld "may mean they might keep the ball off the ground a bit more and do a bit more driving. But we're prepared for that if they do."

Regarding Sean Fitzpatrick's absence, Keith Wood admitted that while he's "not one for the one-to-one battles, I would have liked to have had a cut off him. As a team we can take a small bit from it but Stormin' Norman (Hewitt) isn't a bad player, that's for certain."

The Irish coach maintained that the All Blacks are "the best I've ever seen, and I'm 51 years old." Explaining why, Ashton added: "To my way of thinking it's a variety of things. The most important is the way they approach the game. They've got a tremendous vision and open-mindedness about it.

"It's a big change over the past two years. What's been planted by Laurie Mains has been taken on by John Hart and the players. It's a side that is not afraid to explore how rugby might be played in the future. They've a complete mastery of the basic skills and so it's a very simple game they play but they play it very effectively."

Admirer though he is, Ashton is not seeking a carbon copy. "We're trying to develop the game in an Irish way. It may well be that some of the things New Zealand do we might incorporate in our game but I've never been a sort of coach who's copied another nation. I think that's a big mistake, to bring the cultures and traditions of another game."

Recalling that Ireland lost six of their seven matches last season, manager Pat Whelan acknowledged that a haul of four wins out of seven this season would represent a good return. "But we're starting from scratch and what we must get is that consistency of performance. There's no point in going out on Saturday and the crowd rousing us and playing exceptionally well and then going out the following day and losing to Canada or Italy. We have to get that method into our play which we can consistently reproduce. If we can do that, the wins will follow."

After days of being buried in garlands, Hart strove to add some balance to the phoney war. "They (Ireland) have got an immensely challenging pack," he said, after raising a few eyebrows by wrongly stating that Nick Popplewell was out injured.

"Pride and passion won't be what they build on. I'm sure they'll build on confidence. Sure, they've got some inexperience in the back-line, but inexperience on the front foot goes pretty quickly. It'll clearly be a case in this game of who gets on the front foot up front. If Ireland do, and they've clearly got the ability to do so, then it clearly could be a very testing afternoon."

Hart also couldn't resist a mild retort at the assembled NZ media - compressed into one small room in the Burlington Hotel - for criticisms back home of a squad, many of whom were supposedly out of form. "I always held the view that once they got back into the All Black environment that there was nothing wrong with them all."

Hart also reacted indignantly to a question about the feasibility of scoring 100 points in a Test match. Nice try, but no dice. "I would think that to answer the question would be in an insult to anyone. I never talk about points and I don't believe that the number of points has any relevance to the way we play the game."

"What we're looking for is to play well and I don't care on Saturday if we win by five, 10, 20 or 30, as long as we win and we play. So this team never talks about points, never has the arrogance to believe that it is better than the opposition until it goes out and outplays them. That's what we've got to do on Saturday. Anybody who goes out with arrogance has big trouble and I don't think this All Black team has arrogance."

Indeed they don't. Mind, it might have been 100-plus against Llanelli with a different ball. Cue to another red herring, Hart expressing relief that the IRFU have, like their English equivalents, a contractual deal for the use of Gilbert balls. The All Blacks have successfully appealed to the Welsh Union that they do likewise for the remainder of their tour and so ditch the supposedly inferior Reebok ball which they found too light and "below international standard."

This must explain their paltry aggregate of 132-11 for their two games in Wales. Anyone got any Reeboks? Certainly, a one-off IRFU deal with Reebok over the next 24 hours doesn't seem like a bad idea at all.