Varadkar is no match for the All Blacks

THE All Blacks have powerfully scrummaged Leo Varadkar off his pitch to the electorate from the Fine Gael ard fheis this Saturday.

The Taoiseach would normally see his keynote address carried live for half an hour on prime-time television. But the expected huge TV audience for the Kiwis’ clash with Joe Schmidt’s Ireland side at the Aviva has forced Mr Varadkar to line out early.

The Fine Gael leader will instead give his televised address from 5.25pm to avoid being swamped by the men in black (and green) in the Saturday-night ruck and maul for audience share.

A Fine Gael spokesman said the clash with the All Blacks game had been flagged to the party by RTÉ before the summer, which had led to talks with the broadcaster as to when was best for the Taoiseach’s speech.

‘We are more than happy to move our time so everybody can watch the speech and then watch the big game,’ the spokesman said. Last year the speech had to move at short notice to early on a Friday night to avoid a clash with a World Cup soccer playoff between Ireland and Denmark.

A senior party source told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘There was really no contest in Leo against the All Blacks. We accept people will want to watch Robbie Henshaw, Brodie Retallick and all the other stars on both sides. The Taoiseach will be delighted if we can repeated the success of beating them in Chicago two years ago.’

The autumn series game between the No.1 and No.2 rugby sides in the world is so mouth-watering a prospect that it will be carried live by Channel 4 as well as RTÉ.

The Taoiseach is known to be fan of the sport – as he has previously lined out for the Oireachtas rugby XV in its occasional matches against teams made up from members of other parliaments.