Often, it’s hard to recreate the same magic. Suffice to say, Soldier Field: Part 2 has a lot to live up to. Nine years after that unforgettable week on Stateside, Ireland are back in Chicago to face the All Blacks again. It promises to be another memorable experience.
But Saturday’s rematch will pale in comparison to the seismic events of 2016. Something was going on that year. Bat**** insane would be the best way to describe it. Leicester City won the Premier League. Connacht secured Pro12 glory. Brexit happened, and there was another monumental shock around the corner in the US Presidential elections. Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, as it happened, stayed at the five-star Trump Tower in the centre of Chicago.
When that Irish team pitched up at O’Hare airport on the eve of that fateful match, few gave them a chance of lifting a century-long hex against their Kiwi tormentors. Stranger things had happened, however. There were plenty of omens along the way…
111 Years of Hurt
Few of the Irish journalists who made the trek across the Atlantic for this game held much optimism either.
For context, Schmidt’s squad were going through something of a regeneration. The mauling from the Pumas in that ill-fated 2015 World Cup quarter-final had left deep scars.
Schmidt’s side had finished third in the 2016 Six Nations, after a mixed campaign which included two wins, two defeats and a draw. An experimental squad had lost 2-1 in a series which began brightly but fizzled out by the third Test.
New Zealand, meanwhile, were in imperious form. Steve Hansen, who had a 92 per cent win record as head coach, had taken the All Blacks to another level since they sealed back-to-back World Cup triumphs in 2015.
Test legends such as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Dan Carter had retired but there was no drop-off in performance.
Hansen’s all-conquering outfit were on a 17-game unbeaten run when they arrived in Chicago. They hadn’t lost an international game in 15 months, and they had averaged six tries per game in their last 10 Tests.
The 29th meeting between both teams was scheduled for Soldier Field, and there wasn’t much hope that Ireland were going to end this 111-year losing run.
Especially when Schmidt confirmed his playing squad. This reporter had just taken his suitcase off the carousel in Chicago airport when an email landed from the IRFU confirming that Peter O’Mahony and Sean O’Brien hadn’t made the trip. Schmidt was seemingly keeping his premier backrowers back in Dublin for the rematch with the All Blacks, which was taking place at Aviva Stadium later in the month.
A few of us got an early glimpse of Soldier Field on the Monday night. The Chicago Bears, the city’s flagship NFL side, welcomed the Minnesota Vikings to their home ground.
Omens aplenty
The Bears, as it happened, had won their first and only Super Bowl in 1985. Mike Ditka’s side were widely regarded as the greatest NFL team of all time, winning the Super Bowl that year with a commanding 46-10 win against the New England Patriots. Mentioning the likes of Walter Payton, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary immediately endeared you to any local.
The Bears had fallen on hard times, and the great side of 1985 had cast a long shadow. They had a rare win that night, and the packed-out Soldier Field was reveling in it.
We tourists marvelled at the sheer scale of this marvellous stadium. Ireland would be taking on the All Blacks at this venue in six days’ time.
There was another long-suffering Chicago sports team in the city. The Cubs had not won a World Series since 1908, and when the Windy City’s baseball team, haunted by the Billy Goat Curse, battled back from 3-1 down in the final series against the Cleveland Indians, there was a giddiness around the city.
And history was made on the Wednesday night when the Cubs, at the bottom of the last innings in the final game of the series, ended a 108-year wait for the title.
Chicago went bonkers that evening. This was their Italia 90 moment. Walking the streets of the town in the hours after the game was something to behold. Pure joy from a city which had suffered so much sporting headache.
Two days later, we found ourselves in the Grand Salon suite on the 17th floor of Trump Tower for Ireland’s captain’s run press conference. Usually, this event takes place at the stadium. The Cubs’ open-top victory tour through the city derailed those logistical plans.
Chicago had come to a standstill as millions of locals took to the streets to hail their heroes. Looking down at the buses weaving their way through the packed city streets, there was a sense that something special was going on this week. If the Cubs could get this monkey off their backs, surely Ireland could do the same?
‘I’ve played in a lot of very good Irish teams, and it seems very strange that Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks, for whatever reason. We’ve come close a number of times, but it’s strange,’ Rory Best, Ireland’s captain, admitted at that press conference.
A few of us ended up filing our copy in the ‘Trump Boardroom’ across the hall ‘Just don’t tell the boss,’ quipped one member of the hotel staff as she watched us set up our laptops in the swish surroundings.
The boss in question was Mr Donald J Trump, the GOP Presidential nominee. Trump would win the White House the following Tuesday. Shock results all round.
Flying under the radar
Speaking to a number of players in the aftermath of Soldier Field, there certainly wasn’t a sense that among the group that something special was brewing. It was quite the opposite actually.
‘I’d love to believe in omens, but I don’t. I’m not superstitious at all,’ was Schmidt’s blunt assessment when he faced the press that week. We didn’t know it at the time, but the New Zealander wasn’t happy with this squad’s preparations.
For one thing, the IRFU had struggled to source a green field site in this concrete jungle of a city for training sessions. When they finally sourced a pitch to train on, it wasn’t up to scratch. The players were switched on. Forget about making history, the omens for Saturday were positively grim.
‘We were training on the worst pitch I have ever trained on – it was a bog,’ Rob Kearney recalled in 2018. ‘There were shootings going on around the place. It was legit. We could hear gunshots going off.
‘The standard of our session was atrocious – we couldn’t blame a few gunshots for that! We just weren’t fully switched on, we were a fair bit off the mark.’ Schmidt, rather uncharacteristically, gave his players the hairdryer treatment on the pitch that day. ‘It was probably the timing of it that was a little bit unusual,’ Kearney added.
‘He would have just used footage of the training the day before and showcased all the bad stuff we were doing and said “if you reproduce this tomorrow, you are going to get absolutely opened up”.
‘It set the tone. It probably brought everyone back down to reality a bit and just made us realise: “Jesus, if we don’t get our act together here.”
Something definitely clicked in the intervening 24 hours.
All was not well in the All Blacks camp either. Were the world champions a bit distracted as well? The memory of a Kiwi journalist mistaking Jack McGrath for Best during a press conference is almost symbolic now. There was a hint of complacency about the All Blacks that week.
On the eve of the game, a number of players, including their skipper Kieran Read, were doing a Q&A event at an Adidas store in town. We can still remember Read wearing a face like thunder during that commercial gig. Such a thing would never occur during a proper Test week. You could almost read the No. 8’s mind: why are we doing something like this 24 hours out from a big international game?
There was also chat that a number of All Blacks had spent the afternoon following the Cubs’ victory parade. Surely some of that filtered into the Irish camp?
Matchday soon arrived. And here had been some murmurings in the days leading to the game that the players were planning something to pay tribute to Munster head coach Anthony Foley, who had passed away the previous month.
A long time coming
There are differing accounts of who came up with the idea of the figure of eight to face the haka. Schmidt, Johnny Sexton and Best have been credited. It was inspired. A dignified and powerful way to commemorate Foley’s memory, with the Munster contingent out in front.
So often in this fixture, it was New Zealand who held the early psychological edge before kick-off. Ireland looked to have the extra motivational energy this time around.
It didn’t stop the All Blacks drawing first blood through a brilliant early try from George Moala. No matter, Ireland came roaring back into the contest with tries from Jordi Murphy, CJ Stander and an inspired Murray.
New Zealand, true to form, fired back in the second half with a devastating three-try blast, seemingly swinging the momentum back their way.
Not this day. Murray, having the game of his life, chased down Simon Zebo’s kick downfield and clattered Savea in the in-goal area. Scrum Ireland. The rest is history. Soon, Robbie Henshaw was racing onto Jamie Heaslip’s switch pass and history was made.
Cue pandemonium at the final whistle. An unforgettable day. One of Schmidt’s tactical masterclasses, too. The New Zealander had signed a contract extension, taking him towards the 2019 World Cup, only a few weeks earlier. The All Blacks had made a big play to get him home. Would Ireland have broken that New Zealand-shaped glass ceiling without Schmidt’s influence?
Ireland are back in Chicago this week. No longer the underdogs in this fixture. This is now a genuine rivalry. Ireland have beaten the All Blacks twice in Dublin and twice on New Zealand soil since.
Only five of the class of 2016 are back for the rematch. Furlong, Henshaw, Finlay Bealham, Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose. The circumstances are very different this time around.
The All Blacks won’t be caught on the hop again. They are sick to death of hearing about 2016. They are in Chicago to right a few wrongs. There won’t be any distractions or shoddy preparation on this occasion.
Many of Andy Farrell’s frontliners are desperately short on game time this season. There are question marks about the form and age profile of this current playing group while Leinster – bulk suppliers to the national cause – have just recently suffered a shellacking at the hands of Munster at Croke Park, fresh evidence perhaps that a core of experienced players are in decline. The trip to Chicago couldn’t have come at a better time by the sounds of it.
It should be a riveting occasion. No, it can’t possibly live up to the first instalment. How could it? It should still be box office, however. This sequel will be well worth a watch.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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