With some of the All Blacks ‘still hurting’ from last year’s loss to Ireland, Ian Foster and his team are already planning how to take down the world’s number-one side. Video / NZ Herald
Gregor Paul in Lyon
The All Blacks have made no secret of the fact that Ireland hurt them last year when they won a historic first series in New Zealand.
Nor have the All Blacks hidden their respect for the Irish. Since it was confirmed that New Zealandwould be playing Ireland in the quarter-finals, the All Blacks coaching team and players have lavished praise on the world’s No 1 team, saying how they deserve to be where they are, given the quality of rugby they are playing.
But what is also coming through- though perhaps not explicitly- is that there isn’t a lot of love for the Irish. There were things said and acts committed last year that haven’t been forgotten by the All Blacks.
In what was a brilliant, competitive and dramatic series last year, two moments have been stored away to throw into the emotional pot this week.
Brodie Retallick suffered a broken cheekbone against Ireland in Wellington last year. Photo / Photosport
In the third test, Brodie Retallick’s cheekbone was broken when he was hit in a head-on-head collision by Irish prop Andrew Porter.
The tackle itself didn’t have much intent or malice, but the fact Porter was only yellow-carded and that no one in Ireland’s camp publicly acknowledged the incident, nor inquired as to Retallick’s welfare, left a decidedly sour taste.
Retallick, when he was asked about what he remembers from that test in Wellington, said: “I remember getting a fractured cheek. I haven’t forgotten about that one.”
No one who played in the second test in Dunedin, or who was in the squad, will have forgotten Irish flanker Peter O’Mahony telling All Blacks captain Sam Cane: “Who do you think you are pal? You are a shit Richie McCaw.”
It was a brutal takedown by the Irish flanker and while Cane and his teammates laughed it off at the time, suggesting it was heat-of-the-moment stuff and that all is considered fair in love and war, the comment deepened the animosity that is building between two teams who are forging arguably the greatest rivalry of the past decade.
Tension between the two first came to light in 2016 when, after losing to Ireland in Chicago, the All Blacks were in Dublin two weeks later, exacting the most brutal revenge in an 80-minute physical onslaught which the home side publicly complained could have resulted in eight citings, rather than the two that it did.
What riled the Irish further was that a post-match judicial hearing determined that All Blacks centre Malakai Fekitoa’s yellow card for a high tackle should have been red, meaning they had been denied the chance to play the last 30 minutes of the match against 14 men.
If that match seven years ago, one of the most ferocious ever played in the modern age, was the source of distrust building between the two countries, what has fostered it more recently is the growing sense that Ireland have become increasingly ungracious the more they have won.
Rugby has always had hot-heads and flashpoints, but so too has it also had an expectation that its protagonists, win or lose, will observe some kind of code of conduct where players are respectful of one another and conscious of the values of the game.
Over the decades, there have only been a few teams who have made themselves universally unpopular in the way they have behaved, or carried themselves on the field or after games.
The most notorious was Will Carling’s England team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, who were never much liked by anyone other than their own fans.
They were perceived as arrogant, often condescending to opponents, and a touch too fond of celebrating their own success.
And this Ireland team have perhaps become the new England, as their prolonged stretch as No 1 in the world rankings may be fostering a culture of entitlement.
O’Mahony’s comment lacked class and respect, while Johnny Sexton has seemingly come to see his status as the global game’s elder statesman and captain of the world’s best team as a licence to berate officials and belittle opponents.
He’s a brilliant player and a great leader - wonderfully articulate, too - but he’s often too eager in trying to get under opponents’ skin, as was demonstrated in Dunedin last year when he and All Blacks hooker Dane Coles are believed to have had a testy verbal exchange on the sidelines.
Sexton was also banned for three weeks before the World Cup after being found guilty of harassing referee Jaco Peyper in the final of Europe’s Champions Cup.
The disciplinary committee that banned him said they “found his behaviour confrontational and aggressive towards and disrespectful of the match officials”.
Some may find his passion admirable and judge his behaviour a sign of his depth of commitment to win, but it’s obvious that the All Blacks may have the deepest respect for his talent, but they don’t much care for the way he conducts himself.
And so what looms is a contest that will have the additional spice of simmering resentment and an underlying ferocity that will be driven by mutual dislike as much as mutual respect.
