The Fields of Athenry Ring Out in Dunedin
The first strains of The Fields of Athenry were aired on the streets of Dunedin aroung lunchtime as groups of Irish supporters made their way through the Octagon en route to Carisbrook.
And there was a surprisingly large Irish support, ex-pats joined by those who had made the journey specially to support the Irish side.
The Irish team did their normal match day line-out practice on the green just across from the Southern Cross Hotel before returning for lunch at 12.30.
Coach Eddie O’Sullivan has still to decide on the vacancy on the bench and is unlikely to do so until just before kick-off.
“It’s a bench position so there’s no real emergency on it. We’ll see the progress Alan (Quinlan) makes, we’ve got David Wallace and Leo Cullen as well. So we don’t see the need to make that decision now.” he said.
He also said that he didn’t see much weaknesses about this All Black side.
“I’d like to think that in any Test the opposition are beatable if you get things right but I wouldn’t see any particular weakness in the All Blacks at the moment. I think they’ve also changed their team around picking what is a very strong Cantebury spine in the team. They’ve got a bit of criticism after winning by 60 points which is surprising but that’s the standard they set in this part of the world for their team.”
The Irish will have their pre-match meal at 4pm and leave their hotel for the stadium at 5.40 pm (local).