Nobody has beaten the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1994. Fifty-two tests. Thirty-two years. A fortress older than most players in Ireland’s starting XV. That’s what waits on Saturday, at the end of a season that began at Soldier Field, Chicago, last November with a 13-26 defeat to the same opposition. Chicago to Eden Park. Twelve tests, bookended by black jerseys. You couldn’t design a sterner examination of where Andy Farrell’s Ireland actually stands. Track the Irish rugby team across the professional era, and one thread runs through every period: alignment. In the late 1990s, the spine of the…

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