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'So proud': US President Joe Biden celebrates Ireland's win over All Blacks

(CHRIS MCKEEN/AFP via Getty Images)

United States of America President Joe Biden has celebrated Ireland’s win over the All Blacks by calling the side in the wake of their upset victory in Dublin.

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Ireland clinched their third win in five years over the All Blacks in a 29-20 victory at a packed out Aviva Stadium on Sunday [NZT], and Biden was one of many from around the globe cheering for the men from the Emerald Isle.

Biden, who succeeded Donald Trump as US President in January, has strong Irish heritage via his mother and is a distant cousin of ex-Ireland stars Rob and Dave Kearney.

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During his time as vice-president to Barack Obama, Biden attended Ireland’s first-ever win over the All Blacks in 2016, when they beat the Kiwis for the first time in 111 years at Soldier Field in Chicago – a match which Rob Kearney started at fullback in.

While he wasn’t in attendance this time round, Biden sent a letter to the Irish squad wishing them luck in the lead-up to last weekend’s test, and video called them in the wake of their success.

“We’re really proud of you guys,” Biden, accompanied by siblings Valerie and Jim, told Andy Farrell’s squad – who he said he and his family were “gigantic fans” of – in a video shared on Twitter.

“Congratulations, fellas… You guys, we’re so damn proud of you. Really and truly.”

Biden added that he talked Ireland up during a recent trip to New Zealand, presumably in 2016 when he was presented with a personalised All Blacks jersey by Jerome Kaino and Charlie Faumuina.

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“By the way, when I was down in New Zealand not long ago, I was bragging about you guys and they almost didn’t let me off the island.”

At the beginning of the video, Jim jokingly asked the Ireland squad “how in the hell” they managed to defeat the All Blacks “without the Kearney brothers”, to which both he and Joe proudly exclaimed they were cousins with.

An alumni of the University of Delaware and Syracuse University, Biden played rugby during his time at law school, joining the likes of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as American presidents to play the sport during their college years.

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Max Sharp 1134 days ago

Let’s go Brandon!

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Tom 5 hours ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!


It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.


It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.


Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.


Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!

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J
JW 9 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.


First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.


They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.


Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.


Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.


That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup

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