{"id":534419,"date":"2026-07-20T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534419\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T01:36:09","slug":"all-blacks-v-ireland-hosts-justify-world-no-2-status-with-dominant-eden-park-win-phil-gifford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534419\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v Ireland: Hosts justify world No 2 status with dominant Eden Park win \u2013 Phil Gifford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t think about mortgaging the house to back the All Blacks, but if they can continue the improvements they showed against Ireland<\/a>, watch out for some fascinating battles with the Boks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe All Blacks face a stern challenge against South Africa. Photo \/ SmartFrame<\/p>\n

From a strictly rugby point of view, the Nations Championship to date has provided a surprising amount of genuinely entertaining rugby<\/a>. Our neighbours across the Tasman at last provided their coach Joe Schmidt with the sort of quality and unity they had been hunting for as the Wallabies thrashed Italy 50-17 in Perth.<\/p>\n

At Santiago del Estero, Argentina and England both ran the ball relentlessly until the visitors, down to 13 men in the last minutes, clung on to win 31-24. Emotions ran so high, formally dressed officials came on the field after the final whistle to keep a couple of Pumas players \u2013 who looked almost out of control \u2013 away from the referee, Australian Angus Gardner. Fiji and Scotland turned on a spectacle at Murrayfield in a match with some of the collisions so physical, you almost flinched just watching them on a screen. Scotland eventually won 33-17, but the game was closer than the score indicates.<\/p>\n

Cometh the hour<\/p>\n

A position that\u2019s been extremely hard to fill for the All Blacks since they won the 2015 Rugby World Cup<\/a> has been blindside flanker. Jerome Kaino was one of our most underrated players during that golden era<\/a>. In simple terms, running the blind against the All Blacks when he was wearing the No 6 jersey was an invitation to be smacked to the ground in a tackle that was perfectly legal, but rattled bones.<\/p>\n

Tupou Vaa\u2019i is a terrific player, as he\u2019s often shown when playing lock. He\u2019s been even better since he stopped attracting the attention of referees with some of his threatening antics after the whistle had blown. Big, strong and a dynamic runner, he has all the attributes you look for in a blindside.<\/p>\n

But as we discovered at the 2019 World Cup, when Scott Barrett was moved to the side of the scrum from lock<\/a>, a lack of experience in the blindside position will be exploited by the sort of astute coaches who run opposing World Cup teams. Nonetheless, against Ireland on Saturday, Vaa\u2019i was outstanding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Potentially, he could be a commanding figure at the World Cup next year in Australia<\/a>. If that\u2019s going to be the case, Vaa\u2019i needs plenty of regular time in that position. I\u2019d love to see him now playing as many tests as possible in the No 6 jersey.<\/p>\n

Man of the match<\/p>\n

The concept of rugby as a sport for all shapes and sizes is boosted every time Damian McKenzie makes a fearless tackle or runs the ball back into a dangerous-looking posse of opposing defenders.<\/p>\n

McKenzie has been winning hearts, including mine, for many seasons with his bravery, his speed and what can only be described as a quirky approach to tactics. At Eden Park, it all came together.<\/p>\n

\" Damian McKenzie in action for the All Blacks against Ireland. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, the fullback position in the All Blacks would be available to the wonderfully gifted Will Jordan<\/a>. But with Ruben Love increasingly looking like the first five-eighths in the All Blacks\u2019 future<\/a>, McKenzie running at fullback and Jordan on the wing makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

McKenzie is a unusual specimen on modern rugby\u2019s global stage. In case it seemed like an optical illusion, current All Blacks are much bigger than heroes of the past. Jordie Barrett at second five-eighths is the same weight and slightly taller at 1.94m than Sir Colin Meads<\/a>. McKenzie, on the other hand, stands at just 1.77m, exactly the same height as the average Kiwi male.<\/p>\n

At home in the garden<\/p>\n

It certainly didn\u2019t do any harm to the All Blacks\u2019 cause that they were playing at Eden Park on Saturday night<\/a>. The atmosphere when more than 40,000 people are at the ground remains electric.<\/p>\n

The myth that Aucklanders are not passionate about the All Blacks must surely have been most surely demolished by 53 undefeated tests<\/a> \u2013 including a World Cup final \u2013 at our designated national stadium. <\/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":"Don\u2019t think about mortgaging the house to back the All Blacks, but if they can continue the improvements…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[263618,3017,5263,8136,43863,7123,5506,17516,41309,8142,80278,25630,8019,18792,263617,111,139,7805,69,8143,21037,26891,28228,213,44093,1361,165,252750,13020,6027,102,377],"class_list":["post-534419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-263618","tag-ahead","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-certainly","tag-current","tag-defeat","tag-deserve","tag-dominant","tag-eden","tag-gifford","tag-hosts","tag-ireland","tag-irish","tag-justify","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-phil","tag-proof","tag-ranking","tag-sports","tag-status","tag-that","tag-their","tag-thoroughly","tag-version","tag-win","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534419","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=534419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}