It took 13 games stretched across 117 years but on Saturday the 9th of July 2022, Ireland finally beat New Zealand in New Zealand and, in doing so, announced themselves as real players on the world stage in a way that few other northern hemisphere sides have done.
Before this game, New Zealand had only lost 36 games at home in the last 117 years.
Thirty.
Six.
This is loss number 37. The last time New Zealand lost to a northern hemisphere opponent was France in 2009. People still had active Myspace accounts then. People were going to the cinema to see the first Avatar movie. I still had hair.
Before that, it was England in 2003.
Before that, it was France again in 1994.
You have a few Lions wins dotted in there too – 2017, 1993 and 1971 – but for northern test sides on their own, there is France, England and now, Ireland.
That isn’t just Serious Rugby Team stuff, that is Very Serious Rugby Team stuff.
Now, before I get a little too hot with the hagiography – plenty of time for that later – I find myself compelled to write that we shouldn’t really get too carried away with this result. The history is undeniable but so is the reality that this is not the All Blacks as we’ve known them. Beating the All Blacks in Chicago for the first time in 111 years, with all the emotion that surrounded that game along with them being the last team in the elite that we hadn’t beaten and World Champions at the time too, mentally linked “beating the All Blacks” with an achievement in and of itself.
And it is, don’t get me wrong.
But now that we’re a Very Serious Rugby Team who have done everything in this game – bar getting beyond a World Cup quarter-final, of course – we have to see the All Blacks for what they are at the moment. A very good side, with very skilled players, that are quite averagely coached in a style that is slightly behind the cutting edge of rugby in 2022 and with a history that far outweighs their current ability.
If it wasn’t for the black jersey and the built-in idea that we shouldn’t really be beating guys, Ireland would expect to beat them every single time.
The real benchmark teams of the game in 2022 are France and the Springboks, in my opinion. The All Blacks are excellent, don’t get me wrong, but I think France and South Africa have more ways to hurt us when we play at our best than New Zealand does at the moment. The All Blacks will be back, we know that, but as of right now, we should win this series next week if we can stand up to the renewed physicality coming our way.
Just as Ireland grumbled about unforced errors last week, New Zealand might well bemoan their discipline this week, particularly as it pertained to their shocking first-half foul play. Let’s be clear, the foul play we saw from the All Blacks in that first half is part of who they are as a team, historically and presently.
As I wrote before the game;
When you see Dalton Papalii – stepping into the back row for Scott Barrett, who himself is stepping back into the second row for the injured Sam Whitelock – talking about what he thinks his role is this weekend, you get a real taste for how New Zealand win games like this. How they view the opposition. How they weaponise physicality.
“The role of a six, in my opinion, is more of a hitman, so I have just got to try and smack someone early on. I’m going to add my flavour to the jersey early on, go out there and do my job. I’ve got to do that first and then maybe get a few hits like Retallick does.”
That is not a guy who’s intending to go out there and have a fine sporting contest. He’s going out there to collect skulls. As long as he doesn’t work himself into a shoot by getting a red card or a yellow card that hurts the team (not all yellow cards hurt the team) then he’ll be right where he needs to be.
When the All Blacks went down 10-0 inside the first 15 minutes, you just knew that the next step on-field would be to rattle Ireland physically whenever possible. The first opportunity came off an Irish scrum when Mack Hansen kicked long to start a counter-transition set.
Fainga’anuku attempted to charge down the kick but, also, rough up Hansen if he didn’t make contact with the ball. It’s one of those things where it’s genuinely both. If New Zealand block the ball, great. If they rough up the winger to shake him off his game, great. Ideally, they’d do both, but they’ll live with one or the other even if the latter ends with a card. That type of contact has been a card – yellow mostly, red depending on severity – for years but I don’t think anyone in the All Blacks camp will be scorching Fainga’anuku for this yellow after the game. It was the smart, cynical, bleeding-edge physicality they have always used to intimidate teams at home.
This is another example, albeit without Fainga’anuku’s plausible deniability.
You can’t tell me that this isn’t a clear-as-day red card. I get that Ta’avao is looking to “brick wall” Ringrose here to stop man and ball but he has enough time to radically lower his tackle height to even chest level to make a dominant hit. He rolled the dice on a big, momentum-changing stop while the All Blacks were down to 14 men and lost.
Down to 14 men (13 for a brief time), it was always going to be a tough ask to turn around a 10-point deficit. Ireland had a chance at an immediate, almost certain kill shot from an uncontested scrum a few minutes later but fumbled the moment, literally and figuratively.
But the kill shot would come later all the same.
Will the cards New Zealand earned in the first half soften their cough for next week? No. They will double down on the approach that has always worked for them when the pressure comes on, home or away. They will dare Wayne Barnes to referee them in the hope that he will shrink from the moment.
Iron on iron, bone on bone – we will have to be ready for them if we want to win a series.
♛ ♛ ♛
I spoke pre-game about Ireland’s path to success lying in utilising less possession, relatively more kicking and a shift in our defensive pattern.
Last week, Ireland were a little “freer” when it came to our defensive breakdown entries. It made sense pre-game. We wanted to challenge the All Blacks at the breakdown as we had done successfully in previous wins but the All Black’s stretching of the pod of three off #9 via Smith’s wide passing punished that tendency by finding runners outside the peak of our blitz. They, essentially, found the space left vacated by the poaching forward and exploited it to good effect.
How did Ireland respond? By changing our poaching tendencies, fanning out defenders and eating the All Black’s space by blitzing on the outside pod option that Smith was hitting with such regularity last weekend.
It jammed up the gears of the All Blacks offensive machinery and added real value to our long-kicks infield. With the previous video fresh in your head, look at how Ireland won this All Blacks possession from a defensive perspective. Look at how Henshaw locks the door on the outside blitz, how Ireland’s forwards match up with the outside pod pass option and how that allows Ireland to stress the All Blacks phase for phase.
It all started from a deep exit kept infield to press on the counter-transition. The All Blacks were never in front so they had to chase the game on transition.
We kicked more than the All Blacks, we kicked about as long as last week and, crucially, we managed to keep our lineout count down, way down on last week. In fact, we flipped the lineout count around completely from the first test and we were all the better for it.
The All Blacks struggled without Whitelock and a card disrupted back row meant they played most of the game with only two primary jumpers.
All that, in combination with Ireland controlling the scoreboard inside the first two minutes, allowed us to control the sequence of the game, force the All Blacks into a more on-ball style and then batter them while they were in possession.
They struggled to hurt us in possession, we were brutally efficient in key stretches of the game and, with their lineout struggling for purchase and down to 14 men – they looked… ordinary.
They looked like a team that we should be beating.
And we did. Making history along the way.
Now we’ve got seven days to wait before hopefully making some more. And there’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t believe with every fibre of our being that we can do the same again in Wellington.
Notable Players
This was a great overall performance but there were a few key performers, for me.
Johnny Sexton keeps showing that he’s an all-time talent in World Rugby. He’ll be 37 this week but he’s every bit as important to Ireland as he was when he was 30 and it’s clear to me now that there is no Plan B. It reminds me of a question put to former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore by John Gruden about why Peyton Manning’s (#18) backups weren’t getting more reps in training.
Moore replied: ‘Fellas, if 18 goes down we’re fucked, and we don’t practice fucked.’
Whatever happens after the World Cup will happen but right now, the plan is Sexton and that’s it. I still think that we’ll need a second playmaker on the field to evolve against bigger opponents but, for right now, we just need Sexton on the field.
You can see why with this game. Sexton just makes the right decisions over and over again. The right pass. The right kick. The right play call. When he has to execute properly he almost always does and the difference that makes, the clarity it gives to everyone around him is just undeniable. None of his backups are even playing the same sport as him at this point. If you want to get a masterclass in bossing a game on both sides of the ball as a flyhalf, watch Sexton in Dunedin in July 2022 because this is as good as it gets. ★★★★★
Tadhg Beirne was a bit poor last week by his lofty standards but he was back to his very best here in a very complete 80-minute performance that showcased everything that he’s genuinely world-class at OUTSIDE of poaching. Sure, that’s what he’s known for but he’s far more complete than just being a turnover guy.
This cleanout, for example, is real “statement of intent” stuff. Sticking a dud on one of the opposition’s main poachers, making him pay and generating quick ball.
That’s what you want from one of your big-time players and that’s what Tadhg Beirne was here. Big time. It’ll take some wild performances to get him out of this Irish starting jersey on this evidence because he’s showing the kind of all-round game that makes him undroppable.
When people look back at this game in years to come – and they will – Tadhg Beirne’s excellence will shine through. He’s come a long way from delivering pizzas. If you told him in May 2016 after being released by Leinster that in six years he’d be a key starter in an Irish team that would beat the All Blacks in New Zealand… I think he’d believe you. That’s the type of player Beirne is. Outstanding. ★★★★★
People wonder why Josh Van Der Flier, the Dutch Destroyer, the Wesley Wolverine, isn’t on a central contract and I’ll tell you why he’s not – because when it comes to forwards, there are just so many small forward build strike wing forwards in and around 6’0″/105KG that spending limited central money on that role set is just not the done thing.
But if you were to make an exception for that, you’d do it for Van Der Flier.
This guy has no holes in his game. Well, that’s not totally true – he doesn’t jump in the lineout but, because he doesn’t do that, he isn’t bad at it so everything else that he actually does do, he does to an extraordinary high standard. Imagine how good you have to be to be a test starter in the backrow in 2022 without a lineout jump in your arsenal? Astonishingly good. But that’s Josh Van Der Flier for you.
In this game, I expected himself and Henshaw to max out on their tackle output if our defensive tweaks worked and they did, because if you give Van Der Flier a job to on the field, he does it. This game didn’t have firework ball carrying (which he has improved as of late) but it did have as close to a perfect defensive and support forward game as you’re likely to see. Superb. ★★★★★
This version of Peter O’Mahony is a force of nature. Borderline unplayable. A totem.
The War God.
This performance was something that should be remembered for years to come. It even goes beyond the “big game player” tag that’s been slapped on him, almost as a detraction. This was something else entirely. A complete game in the toughest of circumstances. You’ll have seen the 50/22, the offload to keep the ball in play for the first try, you’ll have seen the lineout takes and probably even spotted the two turnover tackles he was involved in. You’ll have seem him getting into it with Sam Cane late in the game after holding up two try attempts over the line in the dying embers of the game.
But did you see him cleaning out Sam Cane and Dalton Papalii in the build up to the killer Andrew Porter try in the second half?
This is the kind of game you dream of playing and Peter O’Mahony managed in New Zealand against New Zealand. They must be sick to death of him. He’s put a target on his back ahead of next weekend’s test but he wouldn’t have that any other way. He’ll never stop. Should we look to build minutes into someone who could replace him? Sure. But on the evidence of this game with a series on the line, if O’Mahony is fit you start him. He’s 32. Who knows how many more games like this he has in him? However many it is, used right, this version of Peter O’Mahony can be a game winner against anyone, anywhere.
In 30 years, his children’s children will have HD footage of the day their grandfather took on the All Blacks in Dunedin and rattled the life out of them with the world watching. That’s what this game was for O’Mahony – immortality. All hail. ★★★★★
The Wally Ratings: All Blacks (A)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Andrew Porter | ★★★★ |
| Dan Sheehan | ★★★★ |
| Tadhg Furlong | ★★★★ |
| Tadhg Beirne | ★★★★★ |
| James Ryan | ★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★★★ |
| Josh Van Der Flier | ★★★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★★ |
| Jamison Gibson Park | ★★★★ |
| Johnny Sexton | ★★★★★ |
| James Lowe | ★★★ |
| Robbie Henshaw | ★★★★ |
| Garry Ringrose | N/A |
| Mack Hansen | ★★★★ |
| Hugo Keenan | ★★★★ |
| Rob Herring | ★★★ |
| Cian Healy | ★★★ |
| Finlay Bealham | ★★★ |
| Kieran Treadwell | ★★★ |
| Jack Conan | ★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★ |
| Joey Carbery | ★★ |
| Bundee Aki | ★★★★ |
