Ireland signed this Saturday in Wellington a second consecutive victory against the All Blacks in New Zealand, by 32-22, thus winning for the first time in a tour of New Zealand territory.
Source: AFP
It is also the first time that the All Blacks have lost two straight home games against a European team since France’s triumph on tour in 1994. A blow to coach Ian Foster, who is left in a difficult situation.
With this victory, achieved thanks to four tries -for three of the ‘kiwis’-, Ireland will become the new world number 1 in the rugby ‘ranking’ on Monday.
That first place had been occupied since last Monday by France, who had taken it from the South African world champions.
Ireland had already been ranked number one in the World Rugby rankings in September 2019, then following a 19-10 victory over Wales.
In this Saturday’s game, the first half was totally Irish domination. The All Blacks seemed lost and disoriented at the motivation of the visitors. Quite the opposite of the second half, where the hosts woke up and scored three tries in 16 minutes.
Despite New Zealand’s reaction, Ireland resisted until the end to chain a second victory in New Zealand, where last Saturday they had achieved, in Dunedin, the first victory in their history in that country (23-12).
A week earlier, New Zealand had dominated Ireland 42-19 in the first of three test matches in this international window.
The Irish players, for their part, celebrated this Saturday the historic victory in Wellington, which allowed them to win the matchup against New Zealand 2-1.
“It is a very special day as we have played against the best in the world. Coming here and doing what we’ve done is something very, very special. You can see how we have believed in our options”, the captain of the XV del Trébol, Johnny Sexton, who stood out with 12 points at 37 years old, celebrated in statements to the BBC.
