In the minutes before kick-off, the All Blacks’ Steve Hansen handed over a wodge of notes to Ireland’s coach, Joe Schmidt. What was it Steve? A card? A letter? A contract? No, Hansen explained later, it was €760. He had needed a few extra tickets for the game and the only way to do it was to ask Schmidt to buy them for him. This game was such a hot ticket that even Hansen had to pull strings to get people in. But then the Irish had been waiting 113 years for this, ever since they first played, and first lost to the All Blacks here in Dublin back in 1905. Ask around Dublin, or any other place Irish fans were watching on Saturday night, and they will tell you the wait was worth it.
There are plenty of good yarns about Ireland’s home matches against the All Blacks in that time. They are all heartbreakers, though, not a happy ending among them. They had played 16 home Tests against New Zealand before this one, lost 15 and drawn one. It all added up to a lot of ifs, buts, glorious stories about players who almost did, teams who couldn’t quite, and wins that nearly were. Like the one draw, in 1973, which was settled in the end by a freak gust of wind that blew Barry McGann’s last-minute conversion just wide of the upright. Or at least, that’s what they’ll tell you.
All Blacks’ Steve Hansen hails Ireland as best in world after defeat
Or the 6-5 loss in 1963, Ireland scuppered this time by an English referee who disallowed a fine try by the flanker Eamon Maguire. They say the All Black captain, Wilson Whineray, said himself the score was good, and should have stood. Then there were the last-minute twists. In 1978 Ireland were tied 6-6 in injury time when Andy Dalton snuck around the front of the lineout to score the match-winner. Or 2012, when Aaron Cruden missed his first attempt at the match‑winning conversion but made the second after the ref allowed him to take it again because Ireland had charged off the line early.
That loss, 24-22, was at the end of Joe Schmidt’s first season with the team. It was a watershed. The result was the same as always but everything else was about to change. Five years on, Steve Hansen says that Ireland have just become the best team in the world and the favourites for next year’s World Cup. Schmidt wasn’t having it. But it is true that in the two years since they last lost to New Zealand, in the revenge leg after their famous first‑ever win against them in Chicago, Ireland have won 11 Tests out of 12, compared to New Zealand’s 10 out of 13.
So the Irish were not favourites for this match, exactly, but you wouldn’t have called them underdogs either. Hansen certainly wanted them to feel the pressure of it, thinking, perhaps, that expectations might get to them. They didn’t. During the All Black haka, Ireland’s players lined up shoulder to shoulder and took a step forward together, to meet the challenge. That set the tone for what was, as Schmidt said, one of the great collective performances. You can’t start name-checking the standout Irish players without running through the entire side.
Jacob Stockdale scores only try as Ireland earn historic win over All Blacks
Peter O’Mahony won man of the match just because of all that dirty work he did in defence, diving down into the breakdown like he was ferreting around to find a set of keys his kids had dropped into the waste bin. At one point O’Mahony saved a near-certain try by whipping a grubber kick away from Ben Smith just as he was closing in on the line and running full tilt. It was a kind of high-speed conjuring trick. Now you see it, Ben, now you don’t. But O’Mahony was only one hero among many.
Here were Devin Toner and James Ryan, laying waste to Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, the world’s best pair of locks. There was Keith Earls, hopping and skipping through the New Zealand line like he was running barefoot over broken glass. And Kieran Marmion, appearing as if by magic to make a crucial cover tackle on Rieko Ioane just as he was kicking for the Irish try line, Rob Kearney, here, there, and everywhere, at full back. And Jacob Stockdale, young enough to be foolish enough to try to chip the ball over Retallick even though he had made a mess of the same move moments earlier.
Hansen may have lost. But his guests got their money’s worth.