Murray and Best recall Ireland's famous Chicago win over NZ

3 hours ago 1

When Rory Best and Conor Murray think back to Ireland's historic victory over the All Blacks in 2016, important messages from two key figures in the dressing room at half-time remain as clear as day.

Without a win over New Zealand in 28 attempts spanning 111 years, Ireland led the world champions 25-8 after a sensational first-half onslaught at Chicago's Soldier Field.

The All Blacks, hunting a 19th successive win, were expected to roar back in the second half and break Irish hearts like they had done in 2013 when, after trailing 22-7 at the break, they snatched a last-gasp 24-22 win in Dublin.

Three years on, as Ireland flirted with an emotional win just weeks after the death of Munster boss and ex-Irish international Anthony Foley, head coach Joe Schmidt and talismanic fly-half Johnny Sexton made sure to remind everyone that the job was only half done.

"Johnny pointed out, 'We've got to keep playing' and I remember Joe saying 'We're going to score again'. He was really good with the belief," Murray recalled on the first episode of the Ireland Rugby Social, the BBC's new rugby union podcast.

Legendary Ireland scrum-half Murray, who co-presents the podcast alongside Gavin Andrews, says Schmidt told the players not to celebrate if they scored again.

But as the significance of the occasion took over, those in green struggled to stay poker-faced after Simon Zebo's try pushed Ireland further out of sight.

"Next thing was we had a maul on their five [metre line], went down and Zeebs scored in the corner and we went mental," added Murray.

"I jumped up on Zeebs and Johnny, this is the important factor, he jumped up on me and Zeebs as well and that meant we couldn't get given out to after the game.

"Even though we would win, Joe would still remind you, 'remember I told you to do that and you disobeyed me', but Johnny was there and we went 'brilliant'."

For Best, who captained Ireland in Chicago, the build-up to the game felt different to previous encounters with the All Blacks.

"We looked at the game differently and went 'we can't try to beat New Zealand by scoring three points, we've got to kick to the corner'," said the former hooker, who won 124 caps before retiring in 2019.

"That was probably the start of us kicking to the corner a lot more."

He added: "We felt if it was we'd kick, but thought let's go to the corner and back ourselves and put pressure on. Scoring tries is the ultimate goal, but it's also about that feeling of them going 'these boys aren't going away'.

"We had a big change in mentality. That was the mentality at half-time. We need to score again."

In addition to masterminding that Soldier Field win, Schmidt led Ireland to three Six Nations titles, including 2018's Grand Slam, during his six-year spell in charge.

Establishing Ireland as a global heavyweight required tough leadership tactics, however, as Best found out while still basking in the glow of beating the All Blacks.

"We played Canada the next week. Our big thing was understanding player profiles and knowing the opposition as well as you know yourself.

"We got into the morning meeting and he goes 'Rory, talk us through the Canadian front row'. I went, 'Joe, I don't know, I haven't looked at it.

"He said, 'if we were playing New Zealand this week, you'd be all over it. You knew the team last week. That's why we were successful last week. If we go back to being like this, we'll be inconsistent'.

"He came up after and said 'I knew I told you you weren't playing and I knew you hadn't looked at them, but I needed to make a point to the players that were playing against Canada that nobody is above reproach and everyone needs to be on board. I also knew you could take it."

The challenge for the current Ireland group is to replicate their 2016 win when they renew their rivalry with the All Blacks at Soldier Field on Saturday.

New Zealand have won the past two encounters, including a riveting World Cup quarter-final in 2023, while Ireland relinquished their Six Nations title earlier this year while head coach Andy Farrell was on sabbatical with the British and Irish Lions.

Despite that disappointment, Murray feels Ireland "will continue to trend upwards" as they begin to ramp up preparations for the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

"He [Farrell] doesn't accept staying the same. Every time we used to meet up for camp, it was always like 'what are we going to get better at'," he said.

"You look at the positions, 10 being an obvious one. Two unbelievable talents [Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast] and there's a few more in the background too, they're going to push each other to crazy high standards.

"That's the main thing. The competition in the squad is huge and it'll keep the machine going.

"When I retired, the one thing in my head was 'that team's going to keep on winning trophies and big games'. When the World Cup comes around, I think we'll witness something that hasn't been done."

Read Entire Article
Ekonomi | Asset | Lokal | Tech|