'Ireland back themselves against anyone' - Andy Farrell after victory over New Zealand

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell had high praises for his side following their historic win over New Zealand in the second Test in Dunedin on Saturday.

Skipper Johnny Sexton led from the front with three penalties and two conversions while Andrew Porter scored two tries as Ireland defeated the All Blacks for the first time in New Zealand with a 23-12 victory.

The result came a week after Farrell's men lost the opening game of the series 19-42 in Perth.

With the series now levelled at 1-1, both the teams will now meet in Wellington for the decider on 16th July and Farrell is eyeing a terrific opportunity to do something special.

“We always get a response, don’t we? Everyone knows that, history tells you that. We’re used to it by now. We’ll look forward to that.

“We’ve created a little bit of history for ourselves, little old Ireland, but we’ve earned the right to take it to the last weekend to see what we can do in the final week.

“The players back themselves against anyone and the more we can keep giving them these occasions of playing the best teams in the world, the better they’re going to get.”

Ireland will have an option to test out their squad depth as they face Maori All Blacks for the second time in the tour on Tuesday.

“We’ve some young lads in that changing room that have been inspired by these lot (the Test team), who want to get back out there again on Tuesday night and perform well against the Maoris.

“These lads have taken a lot of pain, that’s what we’ve put them under, the pressure of taking them out of their comfort zone.

“The weeks have been totally different to what they’ve been used to before because of us trying to play five games in such a short space of time and there’s been no whinging.

“They’ve been mentally really tough and they’ll back the lads up as well to make sure they’re in good form for Tuesday night.”