The Irish have poured cold water, or more accurately cold beer, on any talk of a bitter rivalry between them and the All Blacks ahead of Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Paris.

Irish lock Tadhg Beirne shared some light on how the All Blacks reacted following last year’s home series defeat.

“Rugby is one of those games where when you go on to the field, you go to beat the crap out of each other for 80 minutes and when you step off it, you are very happy to grab a beer with your opposition number and enjoy the moments afterwards and it’s no different with New Zealand.

“One thing I will remember from New Zealand was after the last test when we had beaten them, we ran out of beer pretty quickly. But the New Zealand squad were quick to bring in their beer and leave us to continue celebrating. That’s respect, isn’t it?”

“And that’s respect too, all respect and it would be no different on Saturday. We’re, we’re both gonna go at, go at each other for 80 minutes. We’ll be very happy to walk into the changing room and have a beer with them for sure.”

Much is being made of the recent history between the two nations. Ireland took 111 years to break their winning drought against New Zealand, beating the All Blacks for the first time in Chicago in 2016. Since then the two sides have clashed seven times with the Irish coming out on top four times.

But Irish don’t have a great history in World Cup quarter-finals - have never progressed to the final four.

Great battles

Irish captain Jonny Sexton also beat the All Blacks as part of the British and Irish Lions side in 2017 in the drawn series.

“I’ve had some great battles against New Zealand over the years with Ireland and the Lions,” Sexton said.

“What you learn is every game is as tough as the last, no matter what the results. That is what we are preparing for...for the toughest game we have ever faced. And we are trying to put ourselves in a frame of mind that we are going to be ready for it.”