Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton questions 'strange' negativity around Rugby World Cup campaign

Johnny Sexton says Ireland have found the “negativity” around their Rugby World Cup campaign “strange” as they seek a third famous win over the All Blacks in four years.

Ireland finished second in Pool A behind Japan, against whom they lost, but Sexton believes they are building well and can peak in Saturday’s quarter-final in Tokyo on Saturday.

“Apart from a poor 60 minutes against Japan, everything else has pretty much gone to plan,” said Sexton.

“There has been some negativity around us and that’s been pretty strange. But we’re really confident in how we’re building. We’d like to be playing a bit better in some regards but, hopefully, we can put that performance out there on Saturday.”

Ireland had never beaten New Zealand until 2016, when they won in Chicago and defeated them again in Dublin in November last year on their way to becoming the world’s No1 team.