In November 2005, Ireland played New Zealand in the old Lansdowne Road. It was my first time playing the All Blacks, so I was a ball of nerves and excitement.
My opposite number on that day, Ma’a Nonu, would also bookend my career, opposing me in my last outing, a narrow loss to the Kiwis in the Aviva Stadium in 2013.
What I quickly came to appreciate was that while Ireland had performed well in Carisbrook, Dunedin in 2002 – they lost 15-6 in the first Test of two but were beaten 40-8 at Eden Park the following week – there was an unmistakable and appreciable chasm in class.
New Zealand were light years ahead of us and while the one-off performance tantalised us, it was a case of nothing more substantial than briefly flickering competitiveness.
This was reinforced in 2005 when Marcus Horan, just recently inducted into Rugby Players Ireland Hall of Fame, scored a 79th-minute try that saved Ireland the ignominy of a first “nil” scoreline against the All Blacks since 1924: not that there are many/any straws to be clutched at when losing 45-7.
It was a very special New Zealand team led by head coach Graham Henry that successfully navigated a ‘Grand Slam’ tour, where the big focus was on beating England. The team that lined out against Ireland was summarily described as the New Zealand ‘B’ team in some quarters or the marginally more polite, ‘heavily rotated’ in others.
Such was their strength in depth that it was widely regarded at the time that the second-best team in the world was the All Blacks’ reserves. I remember in one game lining up to defend a pod of three of their front row forwards. John Afoa, as first receiver, had fellow prop Tony Woodcock running a short line, with the option to drop a pass out the back to hooker Keven Mealamu.
When did the All Blacks lose their aura?
I tried to read the play or, more to the point, I presumed with my line-speed that the All Blacks prop would be only able to make one pass, and I could control the situation. I was mistaken, embarrassingly so, as Afoa delivered a perfectly timed pass to the runner I couldn’t defend, the upshot, a definitive line break.
New Zealand were a special team, largely untouchable, the All Blacks’ aura at its zenith. The ability to create something out of nothing and score tries in rapid succession set them apart. They retain that ability even now to conjure a special moment of which Wallace Sititi, Mark Telea, Beauden Barrett and Will Jordan provided examples in the victory over England last weekend.
A primary difference between the teams at Twickenham was New Zealand’s capacity to turn what appeared to be ‘defendable moments’ into tries. The ability to be creatively sharp in offloading is the most valuable commodity in the modern game.
Former England prop Joe Marler may have chosen the wrong words to express his views on facing the haka in the lead up to last week’s match, but I think the sentiment he was trying to portray is not wrong. The haka needs to be answered in some fashion or else it becomes one-sided pageantry.
There have been varying attempts at this, some more successful than others and those that have found the correct tone usually have a common trait; they have the capacity to beat the All Blacks and do not shy away from it.
Whether it was England during their tour of 2003, South Africa periodically in the Rugby Championship, France in and out of World Cups and now more recently Ireland, the haka is taken as it is meant to be, a challenge.
The aforementioned teams had the ability to accept the challenge, and that tension is felt right across the stadium, shared by the players facing each other as well as the fans.
I still remember my former coach Willie Anderson, as Ireland captain in 1989, linking arms with his team, dragging them inch by inch up to the haka, before going nose to nose with their skipper Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford.
The Irish fans’ response was frenzied, one that created an incredible atmosphere. Things were a lot less hostile for the visitors on the pitch, where the home side failed to muster a genuine threat of winning the match as New Zealand prevailed 23-6. Anderson would later say: “We won the dance but lost the game”.
My own experience facing the haka evolved over the years. In 2005 there was some prematch ‘talk’ of how we would handle it but in reality, we were playing the jersey and, in some ways, had already lost, as did most teams who played the All Blacks at that time.
Over the next eight years or so we closed the gap against New Zealand and managed to put ourselves in winning positions which had never happened before. Each time in facing the haka, a little bit of that aura receded, and I felt myself accepting the challenge laid down by the opposition.
The final time, I knew it would be my last chance and embraced every moment of that match. I felt for the first time that we accepted the challenge of the haka underpinned by the confidence that we could win. We did not need the All Blacks to underperform or luck to go our way.
With 20 seconds remaining we were doing exactly that. Beauden Barrett created two instinctive attacking plays that changed the match in their favour. That was one of the most emotional losses of my career, but it was also the bedrock of belief for a successful Six Nations championship a few months later.
The pain of failure can be an incredible teacher and Irish teams have shown themselves to be adept at absorbing those lessons. Winning in Soldier Field, Chicago three years later was an incredible milestone for Irish rugby, a watershed moment in the rugby relationship between the countries.
Ireland can now stand with the best in the world, and I believe we have won the begrudging respect of the All Blacks. There was a lot said in the aftermath of the loss to the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-final but there was also plenty left unsaid publicly.
It has been a long road to this point but I am now looking forward to watching the haka on Friday night, knowing that Ireland will accept the challenge as peers.
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