HAVING EXPERIENCED THE full force of the All Blacks during his playing days, former Ireland international Malcolm O’Kelly can fully appreciate the feat achieved by Joe Schmidt’s side in Chicago, but also knows repeating the trick this weekend is an even tougher challenge.
O’Kelly won the first of 92 international caps against New Zealand at Lansdowne Road back in 1997, a game the visitors ran riot in during to record an emphatic 63-15 victory.
He isn’t expecting the same scoreline when the sides renew battle lines at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday but is also acutely aware that expectations need to be managed with talk of a famous series win over Steve Hansen’s men growing louder as the week has progressed.
“Suddenly now we’re going to beat them twice in a row so the expectations have been raised,” he said. “To be fair if you break it down Ireland have been knocking on the door for quite some time and are incredibly hungry for this win. It was inevitable it was going to happen at some stage.
“There’s such excitement for this match. It’s a completely new match unfortunately, there’s no benefit to us winning the week before. Maybe from a psychological perspective they know they can or have done and at a lot went well for us that day.
“We have to take credit for New Zealand playing badly but they were caught napping and there’s no chance this time around they’ll be like that.”
O'Kellyin action against the All Blacks in 1997. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO
Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO
With Steve Hansen able to restore his first-choice second row pairing, the All Black side for Saturday carries a lot more punch to it than the XV that were beaten at Soldier Field.
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The world champions have spoken about wanting to right the wrongs of that 40-29 loss and O’Kelly believes they will come out all guns blazing on Saturday looking to remind us why they’re the best in the business.
“We have to be as clinical and error-free as Chicago and still understand that New Zealand will more than likely have more of the ball in more threatening areas than last week,” O’Kelly continued.
“It’s impossible to call, a betting man would bet on New Zealand to come back. If Ireland beat New Zealand it will be a pretty elite club they join so lets not standardise what happened and assume it will happen again because it was a remarkable achievement in Chicago.”
To that point, O’Kelly insists that Ireland should focus on replicating the level of performance they achieved a fortnight ago and if that’s not good enough, then so be it.
With Australia still to come to Dublin, the 42-year-old says Schmidt’s side should worry more about the performance than the result. Getting the former right will more than likely take care of the latter.
“It’s a real challenge for New Zealand at the end of their season to come up against an Irish team who are buoyant and are probably at our best at this time of the year. New Zealand are under the cosh a bit, it’s going to be more of a challenge for them but they have done that every time they’ve been asked questions over the last number of years.
“For Ireland they just need to refind what they had, bring that intensity and pressure and the level of confidence they had to play rugby. Ireland have been criticised in the past for these one-off performances and it’s the same with other nations, they beat New Zealand and the All Blacks then bounce back and absolutely hammer them the following week.
“There’s a case of not worrying about the result here and just going out and performing as a team because there’s still a lot of new combinations there. Focus on performance, nobody has even talked about Australia the following week as it’s another challenge but one with a huge prize too.
“Not to be too downhearted if they lose and it would be great if the crowd stay in the match regardless of how it’s going on the pitch. That’s going to be a key point, if the crowd suddenly get despondent because New Zealand are scoring a couple of tries then Ireland will have no chance.”
Schmidt and his players have spoken at length this week about the backlash they expect from the All Blacks while the visitors themselves seem incredibly hungry to rectify what went wrong a few weeks ago.
With an electric atmosphere expected at a sell-out Aviva Stadium, there is a real sense of occasion around this Test match, a feeling heightened by the result in Chicago; but expectations needs to be managed.
“We did beat them and we do have a chance of doing it again,” O’Kelly added. “We’re within our rights to be optimistic but the problem is that the expectation drowns out the reality should the outcome be a defeat. Are we back to square one again and realise that this team is a bunch of failures or a bunch of players who are a one-off performance team?
“We berate the team for not being able to put in back-to-back performances against quite possibly the greatest All Black side of all time? You can have expectation but you need to be realistic and we can’t hold them too accountable if they don’t achieve what we all dream of.
“I know what I want to happen and I want us to win but for me is that the be all and end all? They’re going to go out there and fight and give it everything they have. That’s what I want to see and make it as difficult as possible for the All Blacks to win and force them to play the best rugby they can play and see how good they really are. Lets challenge them to play the best rugby we’ve ever seen and beat this Irish team that can challenge any side in the world.
“Ireland probably won’t win, they’ll probably lose but it’s a case of how far can we push this All Blacks team.”
Heineken Clubhouse Challenge visits Sinnotts Dublin this Saturday from 4pm, with Eric Miller and Nick Popplewell alongside Jed Thian and his alternative rugby commentary. Drop in and be in with a chance of winning some great rugby prizes, including Champions Cup tickets. Visit www.HeinekenRugbyClub.com for more details.
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'New Zealand were caught napping in Chicago and there's no chance it'll happen again'
HAVING EXPERIENCED THE full force of the All Blacks during his playing days, former Ireland international Malcolm O’Kelly can fully appreciate the feat achieved by Joe Schmidt’s side in Chicago, but also knows repeating the trick this weekend is an even tougher challenge.
O’Kelly won the first of 92 international caps against New Zealand at Lansdowne Road back in 1997, a game the visitors ran riot in during to record an emphatic 63-15 victory.
He isn’t expecting the same scoreline when the sides renew battle lines at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday but is also acutely aware that expectations need to be managed with talk of a famous series win over Steve Hansen’s men growing louder as the week has progressed.
“Suddenly now we’re going to beat them twice in a row so the expectations have been raised,” he said. “To be fair if you break it down Ireland have been knocking on the door for quite some time and are incredibly hungry for this win. It was inevitable it was going to happen at some stage.
“We have to take credit for New Zealand playing badly but they were caught napping and there’s no chance this time around they’ll be like that.”
With Steve Hansen able to restore his first-choice second row pairing, the All Black side for Saturday carries a lot more punch to it than the XV that were beaten at Soldier Field.
The world champions have spoken about wanting to right the wrongs of that 40-29 loss and O’Kelly believes they will come out all guns blazing on Saturday looking to remind us why they’re the best in the business.
“We have to be as clinical and error-free as Chicago and still understand that New Zealand will more than likely have more of the ball in more threatening areas than last week,” O’Kelly continued.
To that point, O’Kelly insists that Ireland should focus on replicating the level of performance they achieved a fortnight ago and if that’s not good enough, then so be it.
With Australia still to come to Dublin, the 42-year-old says Schmidt’s side should worry more about the performance than the result. Getting the former right will more than likely take care of the latter.
“It’s a real challenge for New Zealand at the end of their season to come up against an Irish team who are buoyant and are probably at our best at this time of the year. New Zealand are under the cosh a bit, it’s going to be more of a challenge for them but they have done that every time they’ve been asked questions over the last number of years.
“For Ireland they just need to refind what they had, bring that intensity and pressure and the level of confidence they had to play rugby. Ireland have been criticised in the past for these one-off performances and it’s the same with other nations, they beat New Zealand and the All Blacks then bounce back and absolutely hammer them the following week.
“There’s a case of not worrying about the result here and just going out and performing as a team because there’s still a lot of new combinations there. Focus on performance, nobody has even talked about Australia the following week as it’s another challenge but one with a huge prize too.
“Not to be too downhearted if they lose and it would be great if the crowd stay in the match regardless of how it’s going on the pitch. That’s going to be a key point, if the crowd suddenly get despondent because New Zealand are scoring a couple of tries then Ireland will have no chance.”
Schmidt and his players have spoken at length this week about the backlash they expect from the All Blacks while the visitors themselves seem incredibly hungry to rectify what went wrong a few weeks ago.
With an electric atmosphere expected at a sell-out Aviva Stadium, there is a real sense of occasion around this Test match, a feeling heightened by the result in Chicago; but expectations needs to be managed.
“We did beat them and we do have a chance of doing it again,” O’Kelly added. “We’re within our rights to be optimistic but the problem is that the expectation drowns out the reality should the outcome be a defeat. Are we back to square one again and realise that this team is a bunch of failures or a bunch of players who are a one-off performance team?
“I know what I want to happen and I want us to win but for me is that the be all and end all? They’re going to go out there and fight and give it everything they have. That’s what I want to see and make it as difficult as possible for the All Blacks to win and force them to play the best rugby they can play and see how good they really are. Lets challenge them to play the best rugby we’ve ever seen and beat this Irish team that can challenge any side in the world.
“Ireland probably won’t win, they’ll probably lose but it’s a case of how far can we push this All Blacks team.”
Heineken Clubhouse Challenge visits Sinnotts Dublin this Saturday from 4pm, with Eric Miller and Nick Popplewell alongside Jed Thian and his alternative rugby commentary. Drop in and be in with a chance of winning some great rugby prizes, including Champions Cup tickets. Visit www.HeinekenRugbyClub.com for more details.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
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