{"id":112361,"date":"2025-11-01T12:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T12:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/112361\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T12:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T12:09:14","slug":"all-blacks-v-ireland-grand-slam-hopes-for-scott-robertsons-men-hinge-on-chicago-test-phil-gifford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/112361\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v Ireland: Grand Slam hopes for Scott Robertson\u2019s men hinge on Chicago test \u2013 Phil Gifford"},"content":{"rendered":"

That series loss triggered the lack of NZ Rugby\u2019s confidence in their coach, Ian Foster, which would bloom into what we now know became a troubled relationship<\/a>. To avoid a similar loss of belief, it could be that winning in Chicago this Sunday (NZT)<\/a> becomes the most important task for Robertson and his team in 2025.<\/p>\n

Politics and sport<\/p>\n

In many ways the recent niggle \u2013 face-to-face and online \u2013 between All Black Rieko Ioane and Ireland\u2019s Johnny Sexton<\/a> is odd, given that for decades the warmest relationship New Zealand rugby players have had is with the Irish.<\/p>\n

Irish affection for the All Blacks reached its height in 1972 when, led by Ian Kirkpatrick<\/a>, they played Ulster in Belfast. At the time, sectarian violence in Northern Ireland was at horrific levels. There were fears the All Blacks might withdraw from games north of the border.<\/p>\n

\"IanIan Kirkpatrick leads the All Blacks on to the field as armed soldiers look on in Northern Ireland. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n

They carried on, as recorded by the great Herald sportswriter, Terry McLean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the All Blacks trained in snow at Ballymena, soldiers with loaded rifles were by the touch lines. At the Ravenhill ground in Belfast before, during, and after the match, soldiers, with one round up the spout and a finger on the trigger, faced inward to the All Blacks and outward to the crowd. It was a proud moment, I can tell you, for New Zealanders to be members of the crowd of 25,000 who on a cold grey November afternoon stood as Ian Kirkpatrick lead his men on the field. They saw every Irishman and woman clapping and clapping and clapping. All were there to express gracefully, endearingly, their pleasure at the Kiwi presence. At full time every man, woman, and child stood to make obeisance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Republican Army even gave the All Blacks a leave pass. Just before the test in Dublin, two months after the Ulster game, All Black Bob Burgess received a letter from the organisation.:\u201cWe would like to give you a word of explanation and some advice. We are at war with Britain, not with New Zealand. We will take steps to try to ensure your safety. But we suggest you should refrain from talking about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2019This is war, McBride\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the great Irish-All Black friendships involved Colin Meads and another great lock, Willie John McBride<\/a>, a craggy-faced, giant bank manager from Ballymena in Northern Ireland. They first faced each other in 1963 in Dublin in the opening test of the All Blacks\u2019 tour of Britain. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Meads] liked to test younger guys out and being of Irish temperament, I didn\u2019t take too well to that,\u201d McBride told Radio Sport the day after Meads passed away in 2017. \u201cI gave him a bit of a lash and he ended up on his backside.<\/p>\n

\"WillieWillie John McBride and Colin Meads after the Lions’ victory in 1971. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our players grabbed me and said, \u2018Do you realise who you\u2019ve hit? Oh my God, you\u2019ve hit Colin Meads<\/a>. Now we\u2019re all dead.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Meads would recall that once he was back on his feet he said: \u201cThis is war, McBride.\u201d And so it was, for the next seven times they played each other in test matches, through to 1971. Away from the game they became the closest of friends, often staying in each other\u2019s homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, Colin was different off the field and always a joy to be with,\u201d McBride would say. Those who saw McBride give a heartfelt, funny speech at a Halberg Awards dinner in Auckland in the late 1980s would say the same of him.<\/p>\n

Bless the Irish humour<\/p>\n

After the 1972 game with Ulster, won 19-6 by the All Blacks, a British Army captain came up to All Black skipper Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick says, \u201cHe was laughing like he\u2019d just heard a hell of a joke. He said an Irishman in the crowd who had downed a few pints had yelled to him: \u2018If the score gets over 40 points to the All Blacks, shoot the bloody ball!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil Gifford<\/a> is a Contributing Sports Writer for NZME. He is one of the most-respected voices in New Zealand sports journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That series loss triggered the lack of NZ Rugby\u2019s confidence in their coach, Ian Foster, which would bloom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9092,5263,8136,6056,31898,51461,1888,2082,5269,80278,10813,42,2728,3012,8019,15399,3605,43,90,6777,21037,8140,8139,10814,3502,765,165,40,38,41,39,208,1533],"class_list":["post-112361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-against","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-chicago","tag-degree","tag-depend","tag-first","tag-for","tag-game","tag-gifford","tag-grand","tag-headlines","tag-hinge","tag-hopes","tag-ireland","tag-massive","tag-men","tag-news","tag-on","tag-performance","tag-phil","tag-robertsons","tag-scott","tag-slam","tag-success","tag-test","tag-their","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tour","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}