All Blacks on course to become unusual breed of World Cup winners in Japan
- Youthful New Zealand side trounce Ireland in Tokyo
- All Blacks will be big favourites in the semi-finals against England
It sounds unreal now, but the pre-quarter-final belief in the green camp that they had succeeded in demystifying the All Blacks had sounded credible – even heard in a hotel reached by Disney Line trains with windows the shape of Mickey Mouse silhouettes and surrounded by fellow guests walking around in furry clip-on ears.
Yet all the Irish had done, by inflicting New Zealand’s signature defeats of recent years, was help create new monsters.
The defending champions are chasing a third successive crown powered by what they don’t know as well as what they do. Since losing to Ireland for the first time ever in Chicago in 2016, and again in Dublin last year, they have scrambled themselves into a puzzle neither the Irish nor their semi-final opponents England have solved before.
Only four of their line-up remain from their last defeat by England in 2012, only five starters from Chicago are still around, and only six survive from Dublin. The Irish, meanwhile, brought 12 of the same starters from last year – it would have been 13 had Bundee Aki not been suspended – and precious few new ideas. Compare and contrast.