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Rob Kearney’s All Blacks verdict: ‘They're scared of Ireland now...’

Retired Ireland full-back Rob Kearney (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Retired Ireland full-back believes Scott Robertson’s All Blacks have arrived in Dublin scared of the threat posed next Friday by Andy Farrell’s team. While New Zealand travelled to the Irish capital on Sunday following their narrow 24-22 win over England in London the previous day, Farrell has been plotting with his squad in Portugal ahead of the sold-out Aviva Stadium match.

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The All Blacks were 28-24 winners when the teams last clashed 13 months ago in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Paris, but Ireland head into this latest fixture having beaten them in five of the last nine encounters, a run stretching back to the seminal 2016 meeting in Chicago.

Kearney was Joe Schmidt’s full-back in that breakthrough 40-29 win and he reckons Ireland’s healthy strike rate will have Robertson and co fearful of what could potentially unfold in Dublin.

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Ahead of his punditry work for Virgin Media, the host Autumn Nations Series television broadcaster in Ireland, Kearney on Tuesday appeared on Ireland AM, the station’s breakfast show co-hosted by Tommy Bowe, his former national team teammate.

Beginning his look-ahead to Friday’s match with a reference to Rieko Ioane’s X-rated comments to Jonny Sexton after the full-time whistle in France in October 2023, Kearney said: “A little bit of bad blood. Listen, I think Ireland-New Zealand is always that fixture that everyone looks forward to. There is a huge amount of excitement.

“They are the All Blacks, they will always have that aura about them. But I think they are scared of Ireland now. You know, we have done a job on them the last few years.

“Of course, they will always point to the last two quarter-finals of the World Cup which is what matters, but they will be coming to Dublin a little bit scared of what could potentially happen. And we’ll be scared too because the Irish team are always scared coming up against them.”

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Having taken over the captaincy from Peter O’Mahony for last July’s second Test win over South Africa in Durban, Caelan Doris has been named as the Ireland Autumn Nations Series skipper ahead of Wednesday’s 2pm announcement of Farrell’s team to take on the All Blacks.

Kearney praised the progress Doris has made in recent years but he wouldn’t agree with Bowe that the No8 is now a shoe-in to go on and be named skipper of the 2025 British and Irish Lions, the team that Farrell will coach on their tour to Australia.

“He has been superb for the last number of years,” said Kearney about Doris. “He has really grown in terms of his own leadership skills. Andy had done a really good job in terms of bringing these young guys through and giving them more responsibility within the team and it’s probably just a natural progression for this team and an honour that Caelan certainly deserves and he will thrive on it.

“A (Lions skipper) shoe-in may be a bit strong but he will definitely be one of the front contenders. You know from down through the years the Lions is very much based on performances during the Six Nations.

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“Autumn internationals will have a big impact on that but it’s really what you do individually and as a team during the Six Nations. If he continues to thrive and grow into the role and Ireland do very well in the Six Nations, you’d have to think he will definitely will be a front runner.”

It was after a 2021 stint with Western Force in Super Rugby Pacific when Kearney retired from playing and he now togs out for seven-a-side football once a week with Sexton, who himself called it quits as a rugby player after last year’s World Cup. Is Sexton still an on-pitch shouter?

“He is worse. There is no referees in our game either, he is a law unto his own,” chuckled Kearney, who has Fergus McFadden, another former Ireland back, as a football teammate. “It’s good craic and it’s nice to have a competitive outlet every week where you are fighting for three points.

“We are in a proper league, we’re fourth now in the division, we got promoted last year… and we’re not particularly liked. We’re dirty enough, not dirty but we’re sort of on the line. We rocked down on our first night and Johnny had ordered us all Adidas head to toe gear, the same jerseys, so you can imagine what the other team were like.”

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Comments

11 Comments
R
Rooksie 6 days ago

😆 🤣 wonder what he thinks now

R
Red and White Dynamight 11 days ago

Fantastic rugby player, Rob Kearney. Rugby pundit ? notsomuch.

I
Icefarrow 15 days ago

Scared? Hardly. Excited? Definitely. They've got a point to prove, and they don't want to let the fans down. Same for both teams really.

M
MakeOllieMathisAnAB 15 days ago

What’s the bet that if Ireland lose we’ll have a bunch of people blaming Rob Kearney for it?

This might pizz the All Blacks off but it won’t make George Bell throw the ball any straighter or Rieko pass the ball to his wings more often.

B
Bruiser 15 days ago

Neither team are scared of each other. Mutual respect yes, excited yes, scared no. Can we have some more insightful build up

E
Ed the Duck 15 days ago

Those words could come back to bite on Friday!!!


That said, six day turn around and BB missing ain’t the best…

E
Ed the Duck 15 days ago

A 7 a side team that aren’t liked? With sexton you say? My word, you do (NOT) surprise me…

B
Bull Shark 15 days ago

Can’t he just fall in line and call for the haka to get binned?


I wonder what the French have lined up. Something about the ABs mothers. That’ll get them really riled up for sure.

U
Utiku Old Boy 15 days ago

Talking themselves up again. No AB is "scared" of Ireland.

M
MP 15 days ago

Daft spud.

R
RedWarrior 16 days ago

“Of course, they will always point to the last two quarter-finals of the World Cup which is what matters, but they will be coming to Dublin a little bit scared of what could potentially happen. And we’ll be scared to because the Irish team are always scared coming up against them.”


So he actually said BOTH Ireland and New Zealand will have trepidation going into this match. Same as any big match so.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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