Joe Schmidt has cautioned his Irish side that they need to be wary of resurgent New Zealand side when they meet again this Saturday.
There was rapturous celebrations in Chicago on November 5th when Ireland ended a 111-year wait for a win over the All Blacks. In doing so, Ireland also brought New Zealand's run of 18 successive wins to an end. And given the number of injuries New Zealand sustained ahead of that fixture, Schmidt senses danger coming into this weekend when those players return this weekend.
"They’ll come full-strength, fully loaded," he told The Guardian. "Maybe we surprised them a little bit in Chicago. I read that they didn’t really look back too much at the defeat to us before playing Italy this weekend. Well they have that game done and now they will look at us over the next few days and they’ll have a really good plan."
On a more positive note, Iain Henderson has returned to the Ireland fold after recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered last month. He trained last week but Schmidt didn't want to risk his progress in the Canada game.
Ireland will take on the All Blacks with no new injury concerns, according to team manager Mick Kearney. Meanwhile, Dave Kilkoyne and Darren Sweetnam, who scored a try against the Maori All Blacks on Friday night, have both returned to Munster after training with Ireland last week.
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