History
So Ireland finally did it after 111 years of trying , they finally beat New Zealand , Munster did it in 1978 , Ireland women beat New Zealand at the 2014 Women’s World Cup in France and the 20 ‘s beat them at the Junior World Championships and now the set has been completed.
They have waited so long for this win and after the near miss in 2013 there was real hope that with two games against New Zealand in Chicago and in Dublin that the hoodoo may finally be broken… Thanks to some solid defending and some real imagination in attack Ireland defeated New Zealand.
They also did it by playing New Zealand at their own game and scoring 5 tries in the process showing real composure. This win as I say has been coming for a long time and after so many defeats this victory was oh so sweet. People may have questioned Joe Schmidt’s team selection but as he and his players have shown before they were given a game plan and they went out and executed it to absolute perfection.
The game was full of quality moments and will be remembered for Robbie Henshaw’s try in the 75th minute to put the game out of sight. Ireland played the perfect game and has so often been the case they didn’t panic when the pressure came on in the second half and the game went from 30-8 to 30-29 in a ten minute period when New Zealand pressed the accelerator and went for broke scoring tries through TJ Peranara and Ben Smith with Beauden Barrett adding the extra points.
It isn’t very often you see New Zealand on the back foot for the majority of a Test Match particularly against teams from the Northern Hemisphere with only England and now Ireland beating them over the last few years.
Andy Farrell was brought on board as the defence coach after the 2015 World Cup. His first assignment was a three Test Series down in South Africa where Ireland earned their first ever win down in South Africa. I firmly believe that the win in South Africa was a turning point and the way they defended in that opening Test set out there stall for the win last night.
Ireland will now celebrate for the next day or so and then focus will move to Canada next Saturday evening with another meeting with New Zealand and a game against Australia on the horizon. The big monkey is now off the back and finally Ireland can face the so called” Big Three” with no fear. They will gain huge confidence from the manner of the victory and who knows what can now be achieved with Joe Schmidt at the helm for another 2 years.
Joe Schmidt for his part can be so proud of the part he has played in the upturn in fortunes for Leinster and Ireland in the last couple of years. He has masterminded two Six Nations wins in 2014 and 2015, a win over Australia in November 2014, and a first win over South Africa in South Africa in June 2016 and now to complete the set a first win over New Zealand.
New Zealand will now move onto Italy next week after losing their 18 match unbeaten run and as so often been the case New Zealand will now refocus and are well aware of the challenge that awaits them in Dublin in two weeks’ time.
For Ireland the duck has now been broken and it was such a special moment, time now to kick on from it and use it as the lightbulb moment where Irish rugby will never again settle for second best….
Here are the 23 men that created history in Soldier Field last night ,
15 Rob Kearney
14 Andrew Trimble
13 Jared Payne
12 Robbie Henshaw
11 Simon Zebo
10 Jonathan Sexton
9 Conor Murray
8 Jamie Heaslip
7 Jordi Murphy
6 CJ Stander
5 Devin Toner
4 Donnacha Ryan
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Rory Best
1 Jack Mc Grath
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16 Sean Cronin
17 Cian Healy
18 Finlay Bealham
19 Ultan Dillane
20 Josh Van Der Flier
21 Kieran Marmion
22 Joey Carbery
23 Gary Ringrose
By
Cian Mc Gibney
06/11/2016
