New Zealand have won 40 of 42 matches on Northern Hemisphere tours under coach Graham Henry while captain Richie McCaw has never lost a game in Europe during the Autumn series

ILLUSTRATING THE magnitude of the task Ireland face on Saturday in trying to beat New Zealand for the first time doesn’t require blowing the dust off ancient manuscripts. The psychological issue of never having beaten the All Blacks may be a subliminal millstone but the bald statistics of more recent history are equally chilling.

New Zealand have won 40 of 42 matches on Northern Hemisphere tours under coach Graham Henry while captain Richie McCaw has never lost a game (20 wins from 20 Tests) in Europe during the Autumn series. They’re pretty impressive figures.

I was chatting to a couple of our Kiwis at London Irish, former All Black prop Clarke Dermody and Danny Bowden, to try and glean an insight into the New Zealand mindset. During the most recent Tri-Nations New Zealand won 100 per cent of their scrums but, in talking to Clarke, what’s interesting is that they view this area as simply a means of restarting the game.

How often do you see New Zealand going for a pushover try? They prefer to get the ball out on the premise that they’ll score in more routine fashion away from the set piece. Another statistic from their most recent Tri-Nations campaign is that they won 80 per cent of their lineout possession and disrupted 19 per cent of opposition throws.

At London Irish our lineout would be highly regarded and we would look to disrupt about 25 per cent of opposition throws per match so the New Zealand figures are excellent. The key for Ireland in this facet of play is to force them to win the ball where you want, namely the front of the lineout.

Brad Thorn is a phenomenal player but he’s not a powerhouse in that aspect of the game. Number eight, Kieran Read calls their lineout, which is slightly unusual as it’s normally a duty undertaken by a secondrow. The last thing Ireland want is to allow the All Blacks get quick ball off the top. They’ll want to pressurise New Zealand into having to win ball at the front and then get Donncha O’Callaghan to turn it into a mess by dragging down any mauls.

Forcing opponents to throw to the front of a lineout makes things considerably more difficult for their scrumhalf in terms of his pass and also allows your backrow to put pressure on their outhalf and midfield. It’s been trotted out a few times that the All Blacks are vulnerable at scrum and lineout but the facts suggest otherwise.

When facing the All Blacks you need a strong referee, one who applies the law rigorously rather than talks about applying it at the next transgression. If Richie McCaw is penalised once or twice some referees tend to stop at that point.

New Zealand conceded appreciably more penalties than Australia and South Africa in the Tri-Nations yet suffered only one yellow card whereas the other teams had four. Alain Rolland’s performance in Hong Kong was a classic example of the consistency required.

The discipline issue is massive in an Irish context. New Zealand are the best attacking team in the world but they’re quite content to take their points and keep the scoreboard ticking over.

In ideal circumstances you’d prefer to stay ahead on the scoreboard but you certainly have to be within seven points. If New Zealand prise open a larger gap and Ireland have to go chasing the game, the home side will be goosed.

The Kiwis are multidimensional when it comes to attack from Dan Carter’s kicking game – little dinks in behind or raking punts for sizeable territorial gain – to offloading in the tackle. They kick to reclaim possession as evidenced in the statistic that they reclaimed 40 per cent of their restarts in the Tri-Nations.

Our defence coach at London Irish, Dave Ellis masterminded (his phrase not mine) France’s tackling game plan in beating the All Blacks in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final. He explained that to try and stymie their offloading game a team must go for a double tackle; one low and one high up on the ball.

If a team can do this consistently and effectively it introduces more rucks into a match to which New Zealand have to commit numbers. It’s far easier to defend a ruck where opposing players have to simply ‘man-up’ around the fringes.

Ireland will have to kick well. During the Tri-Nations New Zealand scored eight tries from ball kicked by the opposition while South Africa and Australia managed one between them.

It’s important to put it into row Z rather than let one of the best fullbacks of his generation, Mils Muliaina, run it back. Interestingly the Kiwis only conceded one try from balls they kicked to the opposition.

As if to underline their threat from deep, 50 per cent of their tries in the Tri-Nations came from inside their own half. To play that game the All Blacks are incredibly aerobically fit. They do a huge amount of hill running, pounding out the miles to work on that stamina that allows them to maintain that high tempo game.

Every Tuesday before a Test match they have a full-on training game between the team selected and the rest at match intensity for 60 minutes: Leicester Tigers do something similar but for about a quarter of that time. The New Zealanders also place a huge emphasis on skills at which they work assiduously after training. In our culture it would be more of an optional exercise that some do and some don’t after training.

On a lighter note I have to say I was ashamed when I saw the state of my ‘Movember ronnie’ while being interviewed on the RTÉ news: it’s time to get out the Miracle Grow fertiliser.