Ireland claimed an historic series win over the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images
Ireland claimed an historic series win over the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images
After an historic series win over the All Blacks in New Zealand, Ireland captain Johnny Sexton has implored his side to want more as they build toward next year's World Cup.
After being blown out in the first match, Ireland bounced back with back-to-back wins over the All Blacks acrossthe last fortnight, outplaying their Kiwi counterparts in all areas of the game. Following their win in Dunedin – the first for an Irish team against the All Blacks in New Zealand – which was marred by an All Blacks red card, there was nothing to detract from the performance of the team from the Emerald Isle in Wellington on Saturday.
While it has left the All Blacks and their fans looking for answers, Sexton wants his side to use this famous win as fuel for the rest of the year.
"It shouldn't be 'beat New Zealand then wait for the World Cup'," Sexton said. "There's plenty more to play; big home games in November, there's a Six Nations to play where we still haven't achieved things we want to achieve in that. We had a triple crown this year, but a championship or better would be something we're aiming for. There's no reason we shouldn't be trying to progress and do that.
"It's very Irish to think we have to take it easy now until the World Cup. No. Let's keep making the most of it and getting better."
The Irish were clinical in the execution against the All Blacks. In their two wins, they were able to win the collision and slow their Kiwi counterparts down, while their kicking game was superb as was their execution of attacking plays.
While they had a couple of potentially big moments go in their favour, such as loosehead prop Andrew Porter receiving a yellow card for an upright tackle on Brodie Retallick similar to that which saw red for Angus Ta'avao a week ago, Ireland were clearly the better side - taking an 22-3 lead into halftime of the decider and going on to be deserved winners of the series.
Now ranked as the No 2 team in the world behind France, the series saw an Ireland side with limited preparation topple the All Blacks in impressive fashion.
Ireland claimed an historic series win over the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images
Coach Andy Farrell said it was a sign of things to come.
"I think this is the hardest thing you can do by a country mile in rugby, especially when you take it down to the last game, and we know that the All Blacks, by the history, are going to come out firing," Farrell said.
"Not just to be up so much at halftime, but the most pleasing thing to me by a long stretch was the composure when they came back at us. They always do, and we never got ahead of ourselves when we were in front, and we never panicked when they started to come back.
"We talk about this being the start of our World Cup year, but it was never ever mentioned about it being an end of season tour. You see the freshness of the lads. Some of these lads have not played for eight weeks. Some of these lads are coming off the back of a loss in a final, semifinal, quarter-final etc. We had three days of a camp before we left for these shores and it was back together like that. They're a special group and they deserve everything they get."
