Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says that newly crowned Six Nations champions Ireland still have to prove that they can overcome their World Cup quarter-final hoodoo in France later this year.
Ireland claimed a first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2018 and virtually assured they would go into the World Cup as the Test rugby’s highest-ranked team.
However, Hansen, who won the World Cup with the All Blacks as assistant coach in 2011 and head coach in 2015, is not fully convinced by Ireland’s credentials.
Speaking to Ireland’s Independent, Hansen said that even if Ireland progress past the quarter finals for the first time in their history, they would then face a whole new challenge in the semi-finals.
“Ireland were good throughout the Six Nations,” Hansen said. “In that final game, they started off a bit shaky and England rattled them a bit, but once the red card came, it was game over and they were good enough to take advantage of it.
“They’re going well, ranked number one in the world and they’ve had a great year so far.
“Every time a team is number one in the world, you’ve got to consider them to be a World Cup contender – but it’s a tough tournament to win, and they were number one going into the last one, weren’t they?
“So, they’ve seemed to struggle a little bit at World Cups. If it was the All Blacks, they’d probably be called ‘chokers’.
“But they’ve come a long way, they believe in themselves, and they’re a very good side, so they’re definitely a contender. But they’ll have to overcome the pressure of not having gone past the quarter-finals before, and there’ll be a lot of pressure involved in that.
“If they get through to the semi-finals, then they’re in new territory. That’s something they’ll have to deal with that they’ve never dealt with before, and it’s always hard to deal with something you haven’t dealt with before.”
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