IndianZ Xpress NZ's first and only Hindi news website
All Blacks V Ireland November 1st 2025 @ Soldier Field Chicago
By Paul Rolton
With the memory of Irelands first ever test victory over the All Blacks at this same ground some 9 years before still fresh in the minds of many players and fans, the sellout 62,000 crowd would have left this game a little disappointed. The All Blacks whilst having a poor first 60 minutes, were able to grind out a 26-13 win over a poor Irish side.
The All Blacks were rocked in the first few minutes when their inspirational Captain Scott Barrett was invalided off with a nasty gash to his knee, making way for the promising but injury prone Josh Lord to come on for his first test this year.
After being dominated early on by the All Blacks, and losing lock Tadhg Bernie to a yellow card in the second minute, later upgraded to a 20-minute Red card, it was the Irish who score first with Josh Crowley kicking a simple penalty for a 3-0 lead against the run of play.
Ireland gained a level of confidence from their 3 points and with New Zealand born Irish halfback Jamison Gibson-Parke controlling play the Irish attached the short side to great advantage pushing the All Blacks back into there defensive zone and conceding a penalty that took Ireland into the All Blacks 22. The Irish backs show slick hands in a push wide that had the All Blacks scrambling. Gibson-Parke threw a perfect cutout pass from a mid field ruck, that found the big tight head prop Tadhg Furlong, who crushed over in the arms of huis opposite number. The Crowley conversation took it out to 10-0, and 2016 was ringing in the ears of the All Black supporters.
The All Black response was immediate, and whilst messy showed the intent the All blacks wanted as they moved the ball initially in to mid field, where Leicester Fainga’anuku, on for the injured Jordie Barrett, showed how dangerous he can be with ball in hand, slipping a great one hander to Will Jordan who split the Irish defense just being pulled down in the Irish 22. Quick ruck ball saw the ball travel out to the right where the, the small numbers, Ethan De Groot, Lord and Simon Parker showed their passing skills for replacement Captain Ardie Savea to crash over in the corner, with Beauden Barrett adding the extra’s with a great kick from the touchline for 10-7 Ireland.
The rest of the first 40, which took 55 minutes to play, was very uneventful with the French Referee Pierre Brousset dominant, being extremely pedantic at lineout and scrum time, whilst also taking 6 minutes to finally view the Red card incident on a pitch side TV screen when the big screen could not play the incident making the game very stop start. Equally both sides struggled to put together more than a few phases of play at one time, with some of the play not worthy of test match level.
The start of the second 40 minutes was not much better other than the introduction of Tamaiti Williams to the All Black scrum early in the second half which saw the All Blacks start to dominate this part of the game. When Crowley put Ireland ahead with a 52nd minute penalty from 24 metres for a 13-7 lead, Ireland looked more likely of the two sides to push on.
But it was not to be and the game changed quickly in the 61st minute and it was the big man Williams who burrowed over from a well-rehearsed tape penalty, with veteran hooker Codie Taylor charging at the line from the tape he slipped a great short ball to Wallace Sititi who was on for Parker, who was held up just short, Williams did the rest and with Beauden Barrett converting the All Black took the lead for the first time in the game.
Minutes later from a defensive scrum, after Ireland had their best chance of the second half thwarted by a knock on from winger Tommy 0’Brien, halfback Cam Roigard went to kick but with no room he throw a spectacular 40 metre pass to winger Calab Clarke who ran from his own 22 to just over halfway before chipping over the Irish defense, and whilst Irish Kiwi winger James Lowe was able to gather and kick for touch the All Blacks had turned defense into attack.
A clean All Blacks lineout win and a charge into midfield drew a penalty advantage against Ireland and with the Irish defense stretch Barrett slipped through the Irish rush defense to put replacement outside back Damien McKenzie into space, and with options both outside and inside him he chose to feed ranging loosie Sititi who showed his speed over 30 metres to score beside the posts, and with the Barrett conversion the All Blacks were suddenly ahead 21-13.
Sititi was again dominant with ball in hand as the All Blacks started to gain total dominance over the last 10 minutes, and after a desperate attempt by the third Kiwi playing for Ireland Bundee Aki to spark something from under his own post, his long cutout pass was knocked on 5 metres out from the Irish defensive line, giving the All Black scrum the chance to close the game out.
In the 77th minute Roigard showed why he is world class as he snipped from the back of the scrum and with the ball in two hands holding Irish players not sure what he was going to do, three big steps off his left foot saw him crash over to take the game away from the Irish at 26-13.
This was a game that never rose above mediocre, for other than the last 20 minutes for either side, with the All Blacks doing enough to win and Ireland showing little of the attacking prowess that has seen them climb the ranks of world test rugby sides to sit 3rd currently. This was hardly the spectacle that world rugby would have hoped for in front of the USA crowd and media.
For the All Blacks Fabian Holland again showed his effectiveness at both lineout and general play, with Sititi showing his best form this year from the bench. Fainga’anuku was very effective with ball in hand, whilst Calab Clarke was a menace on attack.
The Irish had little to crow about with veteran midfielder Stuart McCloskey being one of their best, leading the charge in the few attacks that Ireland made, whilst Josh van der Flier was as effective as normal in the 7 jersey.
Whilst the All Blacks got off to a winning start with the Grand Slam the ultimate goal, they will have to be better against an improving Scotland side whilst England looms a s big game in 2 weeks’ time, after a very effective 25 -7 victory over Australia, scoring 4 tries to 1. A New Zealand XV come back from a 19 point deficit to beat a South African player dominant Barbarians Team 33-19 in London to round off a winning weekend for New Zealand sides.