{"id":551402,"date":"2026-07-15T18:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551402\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T18:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:47:13","slug":"new-zealand-journalist-had-strange-reason-for-tipping-ireland-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551402\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Journalist Had Strange Reason For Tipping Ireland Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland face one of the most unenviable tasks in world rugby this Saturday – attempting to win against New Zealand at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Ellis Park, Twickenham, and even our own Aviva Stadium would hope to stake a claim to being among the most daunting fortresses of test rugby. None, though, come close to the spectre of Eden Park in the modern day.<\/p>\n

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The All Blacks have not lost a game on the hallowed Auckland turf since July 3rd 1994, when France scored a last-minute try to triumph 23-20.<\/p>\n

Since then, in 52 tests at Eden Park, New Zealand’s record reads: 50W 2D 0L. Daunting stuff indeed.<\/p>\n

Even when Ireland became the first northern hemisphere team to win a three-test series in New Zealand in 2022, their opening game ended in defeat at none other than Eden Park.<\/p>\n

It’s no slight on this edition of Ireland to suggest that Irish team was a more formidable prospect, with Andy Farrell’s current group at something of a crossroads and missing several pivotal players through injury.<\/p>\n

It is for that reason, though, that New Zealand rugby journalist and expert Gregor Paul believes Ireland could be the team to break one of world rugby’s longest-standing records this weekend.<\/p>\n

New Zealand rugby guru sees path to Ireland win in Auckland
\n\"\"1 November 2025; Garry Ringrose of Ireland is tackled by Codie Taylor, left, and Fletcher Newell of New Zealand during the Gallagher Cup match between Ireland and New Zealand at Soldier Field in Chicago, USA. Photo by Ramsey Cardy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, renowned rugby journalist Gregor Paul explained why he feels the conditions may be perfect for Ireland to pull off a famous shock this weekend against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Paul acknowledges the sense of “invincibility” that follows the All Blacks at Eden Park, even through games as big as World Cup finals and Lions tour deciders, through which New Zealand have come unscathed in the 32 years since that late French winner.<\/p>\n

However, Paul believes that sense of occasion is something lacking this weekend – and that could play into Ireland’s hands.<\/p>\n

“The bigger the occasion, the better the All Blacks have played at Eden Park,” Paul writes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s maybe this truism about the All Blacks being geared for the highest-profile games that gives Ireland a serious chance of being the ones to stop the record run.<\/p>\n

They are a good rather than a great team \u2013 not in the same class as the cohort who came here four years ago andwon the three-test series 2-1, after losing the first encounter at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

With little excitement surrounding the inagurual edition of the Nations Championship, Paul believes the conditions are “perfect” for Ireland to end New Zealand’s long unbeaten run.<\/p>\n

What we have at Eden Park is a classic, one-off test against Ireland.<\/p>\n

That has value and consequence, but there is no wider, dramatic narrative around which to frame this game, and so the conditions for an Irish win feel perfect.<\/p>\n

It’s certainly an intriguing point, and one can see the argument.<\/p>\n

However, the suggestion that New Zealand might let their guard down against a team with whom they have shared so many epic battles down through the years appears an unlikely proposition.<\/p>\n

Ireland have caught New Zealand on the hop on several occasions in recent years, though, most famously in Chicago in 2016 and Dublin in 2021. Should they win again on Saturday, it may well rank as their greatest ever against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Kick-off at Eden Park is at 8:10am Irish time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland face one of the most unenviable tasks in world rugby this Saturday – attempting to win against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,6742,43],"class_list":["post-551402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-new-zealand","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}