Ireland v All Blacks is rugby’s new rivalry
Rugby is defined by its great rivalries: BathLeicester and Llanelli-Swansea back in the amateur days; Martyn Thomas and his acolytes versus all forms of acceptable Twickenham governance circa 2011; Walcot Old Boys against Combe Down (you cannot even begin to understand unless you’ve been there and suffered).
And the greatest rivalry all? A nobrainer. Matches between New Zealand and South Africa have always been above and beyond. They’ve written books, filmed documentaries and held seminars on the subject. Loads of them.
But consider this: for all their high and mightiness as reigning world champions, the Springboks have emerged triumphant from only three of their last 18 meetings with the All Blacks. Never in their history as a Test-playing nation have they expended more emotional and physical capital for so little return in the fixture that means most to them.
Australia? Their recent record against the New Zealanders is even worse, if not by much. England, who have a proven record of making life awkward for the Kiwis? Four wins from 24 in the professional era. The French, who like to think they save the best of themselves for dates with the All Blacks? They’ve won only three times in 27 attempts stretching back to the turn of the century, although they were trying once again in Paris last night.
It is the Irish who are closest to having the All Blacks’ measure right now. Their victory over Ian Foster’s side in Dublin, the biggest nine-point hiding dished out in many a long year, was the third in five meetings and while we are nowhere near a decisive tilt in the balance of power – the previous 28 matches over 100 years went the way of the New Zealanders, with the single exception of a draw at the old Lansdowne Road in 1973 – it is surely worth pondering the implications.
Foster, significantly less convincing as New Zealand boss than either of his World Cup-winning predecessors, was rattled to hell by the events of last weekend. How do we know? Because in time-honoured All Black fashion, he sought salvation by identifying crimes and misdemeanours perpetrated by a shameless opposition.
Yet as he accused the Irish players of deliberate slowing tactics – “In the last 15 minutes there were a lot of stoppages, a lot of cramping…it was clearly a tactic,” he complained – the head coach revealed more about himself and his team than he did about the home side. And the principal revelation can be summed up in four syllables: fragility.
We can safely leave to one side the baloney, for want of a worse word, about the Kiwis being obstructed in their gracious pursuit of rugby
“Ireland coach Andy Farrell has more answers to more questions than New Zealand’s Ian Foster”
beauty by the beastly habits of those who have the temerity to give them a proper contest. They may fly like angels when the going is good, but they soon swap their harps for marching drums when the threat is real.
In the World Cup final against the French a decade ago, there was more than a touch of the devil about Saint Richie McCaw and his celestial host. When Kieran Read’s vintage pitched up in Dublin on a revenge mission in 2016, a fortnight after losing to the Irish in Chicago, they were plain diabolical.
That day, the cold-eyed flanker Sam Cane wiped out Robbie Henshaw with a head-high hit, yet did not see a card of any colour. “What? A penalty? He’s on a stretcher,” spluttered Johnny Sexton, the Irish outside-half, as he questioned the leniency of the referee, Jaco Peyper. Five years on in the same arena, Sexton repeatedly found himself on the rib-tickling end of multiple late tackles.
The real discussion point is whether Ireland’s strategic approach to Test rugby, which mirrors New Zealand’s in many respects, is close to bearing fruit at the most exalted level of the sport.
Both nations are ruthless in prioritising their international teams, exerting a high level of control over their top players through the carrot of financial incentive and the stick of an onshore-based selection policy, and both wield significant influence when it comes to the politics of the sport. Yet only one of them knows what it is to progress beyond the last eight of a World Cup, and they don’t wear green on match day.
It is possible that a big shift in fortunes will take place at the next global gathering, in France in a little under two years’ time. There could easily be a meeting between the two countries at the quarter-final stage and as things stand, the Ireland coach Andy Farrell has more answers to more questions than Foster.
The emergence of Ronan Kelleher, Caelan Doris, Hugo Keenan and sundry other freshmen has been a gift from the gods. The Kiwis, by contrast, cannot settle on an optimum midfield combination and are facing the uncomfortable truth that some of the 2015 summiteers – Sam Whitelock, Dane Coles, Joe Moody – are heading back down the mountainside faster than Franz Klammer on a snowmobile.
If that knock-out tie comes to pass in Marseille, how much of your hardearned will you gamble on the outcome? If your answer is “not a penny”, you’ll know that rugby has a new rivalry for the ages.