New Zealand v Ireland: Rugby World Cup 2019, quarter-final – live!

Steve Hansen and Joe Schmidt: There can be only winner today and following the post-match niceties and press conferences, the coach of either New Zealand or Ireland will be out of a job. Both Steve Hansen and Joe Schmidt have promised to step down once their team’s interest in this Rugby World Cup has ended. Ireland captain Rory Best has also stated his intention to retire at the end of this tournament, so this could be his last game of rugby.

England through to the semi-finals: England’s quarter-final win over Australia could scarcely have been more emphatic and they will play the winners of this game in the last four. Robert Kitson was at Oita Stadium to see them advance.

Ireland team news: Ireland are almost at full strength, although with Bundee Aki suspended, Joe Schmidt has picked Garry Ringrose as outside centre.

New Zealand team news: “The forecast here is for rain on Saturday, but Hansen has picked a team to attack Ireland out wide,” writes Paul Rees from Tokyo. “The wings George Bridge and Sevu Reece have 12 caps between them, the centre Jack Goodhue 11 and Richie Mo’unga, who continues at fly‑half with Beauden Barrett the second playmaker at full-back, 14. The experienced Ben Smith and Ryan Crotty did not even make the bench, which is where Sonny Bill Williams will sit.”

New Zealand: B Barrett; Reece, Goodhue, Lienert-Brown, Bridge; Mo’unga, Smith; Moody, Taylor, Laulala, Retallick, Whitelock; Savea, Cane, Reid.

Replacements: Coles, Tuungafasi, Ta’avao, S Barrett, Todd, Perenara, Williams, J Barrett.

Ireland: Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Henshaw, Stockdale; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Furlong, Henderson, James Ryan, O’Mahony; Van der Flier, Stander.

Replacements: Scannell, Kilcoyne, Porter, Beirne, Ruddock, McGrath, Carbery, Larmour.

Tokyo Stadium is the venue for a quarter-final between the tournament favourites and a team that has beaten them twice in Autumn internationals over the past three years. In beating New Zealand in Soldier’s Field, Chicago in 2016, Ireland broke a hoodoo that had lasted 111 years, while their victory against the same opposition in Dublin last November prompted quite a few Irishmen to lose the run of themselves altogether and decide their team was going going to win the World Cup.

For the Irish (and this minute-by-minute commentator ought to declare he is typing this report with knobbly stick-waving pigs under each arm), today is something of a reckoning. Somewhat remarkably, they have never won a Rugby World Cup knockout game and today in Tokyo is as good a time as any for them to – pardon my French but I feel very strongly about this – shit or get off the pot. Kick-off is at 11.15am (BST), but other time zones are available and we’d be delighted to have your company wherever you might be.