Barrett & Clarke return for New Zealand v Ireland

Beauden Barrett will earn his 141st cap for the All Blacks on Saturday

Autumn Nations Series: Ireland v New Zealand

Venue: Soldier Field, Chicago Date: Saturday, 1 November Kick-off: 20:10 GMT

Coverage: Listen to live commentary on, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds, follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app

New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson has recalled Beauden Barrett and Caleb Clarke for Saturday's Test against Ireland in Chicago.

Two-time World Rugby Player of the Year Barrett, 34, returns at fly-half after missing the All Blacks' final Rugby Championship game against Australia with a shoulder injury.

Barrett starts alongside his brothers Scott and Jordie - the latter helped Irish province Leinster win the United Rugby Championship last season.

Winger Clarke also missed the win over the Wallabies after making his only Rugby Championship appearance of the year against Australia the week before.

Damian McKenzie and Leicester Fainga'anuku drop to the bench, while there is no place for Leinster-bound centre Rieko Ioane in the matchday squad.

"He's trained really hard and he understands it's a hard team to get in," Robertson said when asked about Ioane.

"A hard team to pick so it's an everyday job. You have to turn up every day."

Ethan de Groot has recovered from concussion to start at loose-head prop in Robertson's only other change from the 28-14 win over Australia in Perth on 4 October.

Line-up

New Zealand: W Jordan; L Carter, Q Tupaea, J Barrett, C Clarke; B Barrett, C Roigard; E De Groot, C Taylor, F Newell, S Barrett, F Holland, S Parker, A Savea, P Lakai.

Replacements: S Taukei'aho, T Williams, P Tosi, J Lord, W Sititi, C Ratima, L Fainga'anuku, D McKenzie.

Robertson led New Zealand to a 23-13 win over Ireland in Dublin last year, while his predecessor Ian Foster oversaw the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final win in Paris.

But the 51-year-old insists his side do not "have the edge" over Ireland, who have beaten the southern hemisphere giants four times since their historic 2016 victory in Chicago, including twice on New Zealand soil.

"There's more margins. There's a referee's call or a second effort or a bounce of the ball that's gone either way," he said.

"We expect this weekend as well to be a really tight, physical match, won on skill-set or effort or something like that. Like I said before, you expect the best of them and we've got to be on our best on the day."

He added: "There's going to be a lot of green there, it's not the Aviva [Stadium], but it's pretty close - in regards to a lot of Irish being around the place and also what we learned last time and what was the lesson, so we'll be sticking to that."