The Albany Gazette - Ireland to attack at All Blacks' Eden Park stronghold

Ireland can leapfrog the All Blacks to second place on the world rankings if victorious in Saturday's mouth-watering clash, the tourists' final game of the season.

To do so, they'll need to end the home side's 52-match unbeaten run at the Auckland venue, something that Farrell says can't be achieved by making it a focus to shut down New Zealand's natural style.

"They're a brilliant attacking side and that's probably never going to change, so you have to score points," Farrell said on Friday.

"We're confident in our own ability to score points and we know that if we click and we put our best performance out there, that we can cause any team trouble."

Both sides are unbeaten after two rounds of the new inter-hemisphere competition.

Ireland snuck past Australia 33-31 with a late try in Sydney before pulling clear late against Japan last week, winning 36-20 in Newcastle to extend their winning run to seven matches since February.

Dave Rennie's first two Tests in charge of the All Blacks since succeeding Scott Robertson have resulted in home wins over France, 34-32, and Italy, 47-17.

- All Blacks 'DNA' -

Although both performances had their share of New Zealand mistakes, Farrell was impressed by Rennie's drive to introduce a ball-in-hand approach, with less focus on kicking.

He said attacking rugby "suits the DNA" of New Zealand players, highlighting the record number of tries scored by their teams this year in Super Rugby.

"I respect the way that Dave's gone about his business in regards to how outspoken he's been in the style of rugby that he wants to play," Farrell said.

"I think he's quite refreshing, actually. So it's there for all to see.

"And he's brought a bit of steel back to them as well. So it certainly makes them very dangerous."

Ireland wing Robert Baloucoune has been recalled after missing the first two games with a hamstring complaint.

Tadhg Beirne is added to the pack which started against the Wallabies, giving them a vastly experienced appearance, even without back-rower Caelan Doris and prop Andrew Porter, who missed the tour with injury.

- Irish structure -

Rennie said his team will be out to break up Ireland's structured style.

"They've got a really good kicking game and they'll apply pressure through that," he said.

"There's a lot of detail within their attack. They've got a real good short passing game and they're prepared to go multi-phase.

"Our job is to get them out of their comfort zone. We're going to have to bar up big time at the set-piece and we're pretty confident with the group we've got that we can apply pressure there."

Rennie has named usual lock Tupou Vaa'i at blindside flanker to inject size to his pack.

He has omitted veteran fly-half Beauden Barrett, again preferring young playmaker Ruben Love as play-maker between two team-mates from the champion Wellington Hurricanes - scrum-half Cam Roigard and midfielder Jordie Barrett.

- 2022 series --

There are several players from both teams who were involved in Ireland's maiden series win on New Zealand soil four years ago.

However, Rennie said that series hadn't been mentioned in the leadup.

"We're a different team and so are they.

"We've obviously had a look at their performances over the last couple of weeks and they've got a good side and a lot of good combinations.

"Their guys have played a lot of footy together so they'll be tough."

(W.Walker--TAG)