Fly-half duel, debuts & NZ fortress beckon for Ireland

Fly-half duel, debuts & NZ fortress beckon for IrelandImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Sam Prendergast and new call-up Sean Jansen hope to feature when Ireland face Ardie Savea’s New Zealand at Eden Park on 18 JulyByMatt GaultBBC Sport NI Senior JournalistPublished59 minutes agoIt was at this point in the previous World Cup cycle – 14 months out from the tournament – when Ireland laid down an unmissable marker. In what some regard as the apogee of the Andy Farrell era, they travelled to New Zealand and came home with a Test series win. That tour – which Ireland won 2-1 with historic, heart-stopping victories in Dunedin and Wellington – instilled enormous belief in Farrell’s squad. They won 17 Tests in a row, collecting a Grand Slam along the way, before their world came crashing down when the All Blacks exacted revenge in one of the great World Cup quarter-finals. Four years on, there are intriguing parallels. Like in 2022, they jet off to the other side of the world off the back of a Six Nations campaign that yielded four wins and a defeat by France. This time, however, the summer exertions does not come in the form of a traditional tour. Instead, it is the start of the Nations Championship, the new biennial competition pitting rugby’s northern and southern giants against each other.Ireland’s opening leg comprises matches against Australia and Japan in Australia and New Zealand in Auckland. As ever, there are talking points aplenty from an Irish perspective as BBC Sport takes a look.Easterby expects ‘marker’ from Australia in Sydney