All Blacks v Ireland - July 2 8.05am Ireland time

The starting team although not or strongest can do a job, but our bench is a huge concern, no impact at all apart from Bundee, hope our front row can play 80 min worries about Beirnes fitness as well.

Not sure how POM is selected over Conan , and as much as I liked Earls , at 34 we surely have a better alternative.

why is Larmour not on bench ?

I hope you are right , but am not confident at all , Earls best days are behind him as a 34 year old winger.

Ronan Loughney

Sexton, Earls, O’Mahony, Healy and Murray were all involved in the 2012 match that was Ireland’s largest defeat ever.

Smith, Whitelock, Retallick, and B Barrett were on the other side.

Teams announced

The Ireland team hasn't changed much since the last meeting of the two teams.

Change of hookers due to injury, Henderson opens a slot for Beirne to start and Treadwell to bench, Earls for Conway, Henshaw pushes Aki to the bench, O'Mahony starts ahead of Conan.

New Zealand have a few changes but the spine hasn't changed too much, change at left wing, inside centre, both flankers (Cane back as captain), perhaps most significantly both props. On the bench they've a change at hooker, prop, lock, and outside back.

Looking at that NZ 23, there are a lot of older players from 1-10 around 30ish, and the 11-15 are all young mid-twenties.

By comparison, we have a few younger forwards, and a few older backs.

Add Coombes and Larmour to that starting 15 in place of O'Mahony and Earls, and possibly Carbery for Sexton, and I'd say that could well be our World Cup team.

Will be very interesting to see how they evolve their game over the next year, and this will obviously be a big test of their defence and their mental toughness.

Watch them take Johnny out. They will target Earls. They are ruthless and don’t loose at Eden Park.

Over which options? Larmour and O’Brien picked up knocks in the game yesterday and aren’t available.

Ringrose I’d imagine

Ah here, Earls wasn't that bad the last day. Bit of hyperbole on a poor performance - there was a defensive systems failure several times that left him totally exposed.

He made his share of mistakes mind, but so did that entire back 3.

Earls is there for his defence in my opinion. He knows the system and he’s a fearless defender.

There’s no need to despair about wingers after this tour.

There’s Conway, Hansen, Larmour and Baloucoune for starters.

I’d have some hope for Stockdale coming back into contention.

Adam Byrne has a real chance at Connacht of getting some exposure next season.

Aaron Sexton hasn’t really featured much at Ulster but he has speed, if he can defend and do the basics well he could come into the reckoning.

Ethan McIlroy and Simon Zebo are both capable wingers.

Byron Ralston the new Connacht signing could be interesting.

TLDR:

Earls may not make the World Cup, but he’s there now on merit.

Fair enough I didn't realise the two lads were ruled out. I'd probably still rather give Lowry a shot and have one fresh face in there. I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the pecking order is on the wing as the tour progresses.

Has anyone any idea how I could legitimately watch this in the US ? I'll not be near any pub .. so will need to be a stream or on normal US tv ?

what tv channel is it on?

Sky sports action