What Kilkenny, Kerry and the All Blacks have in common

THEY’RE a different bunch, these All-Blacks, a different bunch also their supporters, different to us anyway.

What Kilkenny, Kerry and the All Blacks have in common

Two weeks of dealing with the players, two weeks of following them from Marseille to Lyon and now back to Aix-en-Provence, two weeks of almost daily interviews, two weeks of bumping into their black-clad army of travelling fans, of engaging them in nightly conversation – all that should combine to give you something of an insight into the New Zealand psyche, to give you some idea of what makes them the top-rated rugby nation in the world, regardless of ultimate result in this World Cup. After those two weeks, however, I’m still not sure.

I do know who they remind me of though. Kilkenny and Kerry have often been called the All-Blacks of hurling and football – well they are. We don’t get to interview every one of the Kilkenny hurlers, the Kerry footballers, but from those who do talk, the impression almost inevitably and invariably given is, what’s the fuss all about? This is just business; we train, we play, and more often than not we win. That’s what we’re expected to do, that’s what we expect ourselves to do. You want drama, you want romance, you want colour? Go to Limerick, or Offaly, or Galway, or Clare; go to Cork, Mayo, Donegal, Dublin.

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