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Former All Black criticises Ireland's 'motivation' after Autumn Nations Series defeat
By Henry Lee
After one of the most anticipated Test matches on the end-of-year tour, former All Black Jeff Wilson has criticized Ireland and how they played in Dublin.
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Wilson’s comments come after the off-field drama with Johnny Sexton and Rieko Ioane added extra fire to an already storied rivalry between Ireland and the All Blacks.
Both Ioane and Sexton were in the headlines last month, after an extract from Sextons new book “Obsessed” was released. The exchange was after last year’s blockbuster quarter final between Ireland and the All Blacks where Ioane allegedly said “Don’t miss your flight home tomorrow. Enjoy your retirement, you c**t.’”
The story continued, with Ioane leading the All Blacks haka in Dublin against Ireland, before posting on Instagram after the victory claiming “Put that in the book” referencing Sexton’s new book, which has only intensified the rivalry once again.
Speaking on Sky Sports New Zealand’s Breakdown, Wilson believes it was an average spectacle on the weekend.
“It didn’t live up to expectations, the first 40 minutes were dire, and as a whole combination of things whether it be scrum resets or whether it be the mistakes both teams were making the fact there were so many penalties. Obviously, the weather conditions in some way contributed to that.” Wilson said on The Breakdown.
Ireland’s expectations for this Test match were clearly higher than what was showcased, only really troubling the All Blacks in the short stint when they had 14 men in the second half.
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When asked about what he thought about Ireland’s performance against the All Blacks, Wilson didn’t hold back on criticizing Andy Farrell’s team.
“Ireland didn’t show up, they didn’t show up for this test match”.
The Breakdown panel was questioned about how satisfied they were with the All Blacks beating the previously world number one ranked Ireland.
“It’s nowhere near as satisfying as it’s been because they were nowhere near their best, and it was great for the All Blacks, and satisfying because I think it was our best performance, cause we took them out of the game, but Ireland weren’t there, they did not come and play anything like the number one team in the world,” said Wilson.
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Ireland has since dropped to third in the International World Rugby rankings with 90.58 points, behind the All Blacks (2nd – 91.2 ) and South Africa (1st – 92.46).
Ireland’s performance on the field wasn’t up to their recent standards, but Wilson wasn’t sold on their body language in Dublin.
“But if you look at their anthem for example, I didn’t see the passion I saw last year at the rugby world cup where you start seeing how desperate they were, you heard them talking during the week about it’s not a revenge game, their coach is talking about it, their captain is talking about it not being a revenge game.
The 60 Test All Black challenged the mindset of the Ireland players, saying there was a clear lack of motivation in their poor performance.
“I’m sorry if you’re playing the All Blacks, and it’s a game you want to win, you tap into everything you need to possibly win, you have to execute and you have motivation, it’s like they took some of the motivation out, you took that away.
“They had nothing in that game, bar the fact they got a bit of luck just after halftime to get some field position, and we were down to 14 men, they didn’t threaten us pretty much for most of that game.
He's right, Ireland were poor. ABs were better but only because they were lucky to catch Paddys on a slippery night. Ireland have been the best drilled teams for years now, this was uncharacteristic. Expect them to bounce back strongly. Farrell is the master coach, best on the Planet.
Irish expectations were too high. One, it was always going to be tough given that it was the first game of the season for Ireland, up against NZ who are nearing the end of their season. Two, their flyhalf is a novice at international level and needs time.
It was the Irish first game of the Autumn series. The Irish played the 6N and toured SA. Hardly their first game of the season. They weren't rusty. They just didn't pitch up on the day or they were over confident.
Thinking just because they beat NZ in NZ and barely beating SA in the last test of their 2 test series against SA (which they won with a drop goal in the red with 1 point) that playing at home, this would be a walkover.
When the Irish beat the AB's at home last season, the AB's were in a mess. They were much easier to beat. Not so easy to beat them when they are performing well and when they are not in a mess.
Ireland didn't play like a no1 team because they were a de facto no3 team.
France are without a few this weekend but my gut is this will be significantly harder for NZ than Ireland was.
Ireland should be able to deal with this. But this game nearly went out to a 30-13 win, similar to the other dreadful performance in Loftus. That could have been 14 points too.
This hasn't happened since the start of Farrells tenure. Ireland did look weighed down by something and they must get this right. The amount of games Ireland win/steal when not being technically the better team on the pitch is minimal compared with SA/NZ. The loss in Twickenham should have gone down as another 'one that got away' from England.
Conclusion Wilson is wrong. NZ deserve credit and didn't leave many chances for Ireland to force a way to win.
Ireland are now in decline and don't now have the depth to replace players they lose such as Sexton
No team remains at the top forever.
Those rankings are about right for last year, given that the All Blacks had such dire form before that year it didn't look like that though.
They seemed up for it, when Porter charged down Ratima's kick in the first minute or two - thoroughly pumped in fact! And again, after VDF's try. Maybe Ireland played as well as they were allowed to play and more credit should be given to the ABs, Jeff, rather than accusing Ireland of 'not showing up' ffs.
Absolutely agree
They made many unforced errors but to say they didn’t turn up
Even at 72 mins with Lowes kick it took an Ardie steal 10m out to quash game
I thought the ABs played smartly and didn’t over play with ball in hand
I was very happy and impressed
What I would say was I was amazed the atmosphere was relatively subdued in the stadium
For such a game too
That didn’t help the Irish
Indeed
Didn't the English last week say that was a way of getting them "up for it"? Kinda like when you beat your chest to get the blood flowing properly?
Anyway, theres 'not showing up' and then theres 'not showing up'. I think Wilson was just saying they didn't show up this time, and he'd be right. At least, it was more like playing the old Irish, not the Irish of recent times.
Hit the nail on the head JW, and that doesn't happen for you often. Ireland have been supposedly 'targeting' this match, but then show up and play like its a high school 3rd XV match vs. the All Blacks.
They pitched up for the Boks. They wanted to win. They failed. I did not see the same passion and drive they had when they came to SA. If they did, this game would have lived up to its hype. The AB's thoroughly deserved this win. To be the best and stay on top, you need to push each and every game hard, like it's a WC Final. Win or lose. Knowing you pitched up and left everything you got on that pitch, even when you lose, you can good because you know you have done everything possible to win. NZ deserved to have their full attention. They didn't.
I'd just like to distance myself from this reference will I can 😅
nar I love Jeff Wilson, as a player and as a supporter and rugby guy. Don't think he should be the face of rugby in NZ like he is really but that's not his fault he's the best of a bad bunch. Did enjoy Brad and Steven together though!