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Ireland and All Blacks to renew rivalry overseas again - report
Ireland will take on New Zealand next year at the site of their first-ever win over the All Blacks, Chicago’s Soldier Field, according to The Post in New Zealand.
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The match will likely take place at the end of October or the beginning of November 2025, according to the report.
Ireland registered a 40-29 victory over the All Blacks in 2016 in front of a sellout crowd at Soldier Field, which marked the end of a 111-year wait for a win over the men in black.
Since then, Ireland have added another four more wins over the All Blacks across eight meetings, although they were on the losing side last year when the two sides met in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, as they were four years before at the same stage.
Before the potential meeting in the United States, the two sides will lock horns in Dublin this November, with Ireland kicking off their autumn series against Scott Roberston’s side.
As things stand, it will be a meeting between the second and third-best teams in the world, with Ireland sitting just one place ahead of their 2025 opponents.
Ireland closed the gap on the Springboks at the top of the rankings with a 1-1 series draw with the world champions in South Africa earlier in July. Meanwhile, the All Blacks registered a 2-0 series win over England.
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The All Blacks then triumphed over Fiji at the Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, which was the latest international fixture to be taken to the USA.
The men’s 2031 World Cup will take place in the USA, as will the women’s competition two years later.
All Blacks wing, and try-scorer, Caleb Clarke discussed the atmosphere created by the crowd after the match.
“San Diego is fun,” he said. The crowd was electric. There was a point when I was screaming at Billy and Wallace [Sititi] and they couldn’t hear me. I was about 10 metres away from them.”
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NZ had loose forwards for locks that day and were somewhat arrogant in their approach to that game. Understandable since Ireland had hardly posed a previous threat. The rise of Irish rugby might be put down to imports of NZ players and coaches. Ironical considering how heated Ireland got over Pacific Islanders in the AB team?
Man, as a kiwi fan it’s sad seeing some of the disrespectful comments here about the NZ - Irish rivalry.
There’s definitely a rivalry there with a fantastic team in recent years.
Fingers crossed Ireland can continue the leaps and bounds they’ve made in the past ten years once this crop of players retire. It’s fantastic having most matches between the top 5 teams of rugby decided on a coin flip. Great for the game and great for the spectators.
It’s also very interesting that the All Blacks continue to push for games in the US each year before the ‘31 WC. We’ve obviously identified that market as one we’re hoping to crack.
I’m not sure I buy into the claims scheduling was a factor in irelands loss in the quarters. Maybe your players were tired yes, but Ireland were extremely poor at rotating their squad for the whole WC and they’d take many lessons from how they managed players throughout the tournament.
All nations in the history of rugby have a lesser winning percentage than our All Blacks. So when you start reaching 50%, let us know hahahaha.
Sour grapes, stop talking about refs. Admit it, History shows Ireland are chokers at RWC, get over it. We beat Ireland fair and square, made the final while Ireland and France had to watch from the sidelines. Their winning history goes back 4 years whereas ours goes back 100. Quarter Final Chokers.
Kiwis hoping Barnes comes out of retirement so he can hand them yet another undeserved victory.
Otherwise another inferior SH team will take a well-earned loss. Amazing how all the SH teams need the refs to be incompetent to win.
World Rugby should really do something about it.
NZ supporters here implying that Ireland can not be considered ‘Rivals’ of NZ for historical reasons.
We don’t really give a f**k if you think we are rivals are not. You are just those arrogant, boastful clowns that Ireland and France normally beat nowadays. (Please don’t sh1te on about the RWC, you were well beaten by France and benefitted from the dodgy draw and scheduling to reach a final).
These Irish, Johnny come latelys are getting way to ahead of themselves… Win a RWC before you start chirping. Until then, zip it! 😂
A rivalry?
What since 2016? Beat the mighty All Blacks 5 times in your HISTORY, now its suddenly a rivalry? Funny.