Make it a double, says Jack McGrath

Jack McGrath left Soldier Field pitch with a pint in his hand and a monkey off his back, having beaten the All Blacks, but as far as the Ireland prop is concerned, there is still some unfinished business to complete with the world champions.

The joyous sight of McGrath celebrating with a pint of lager in one hand and a tricolour in the other will remain one of the indelible images of Ireland’s historic first victory over New Zealand, yet the prospect of having to back that up by beating them again a fortnight later is altogether more sobering.

Head coach Joe Schmidt referred to his side’s 40-29 win in Chicago as having “poked the bear” ahead of their Dublin rematch this Saturday, fuelling thoughts of vengeance in an All Blacks side stopped in its tracks after 18 consecutive Test victories.

It may have been a win well worth the party but that 111-year wait for a first success means little, for now, to this Ireland squad.

“It’s going to be a pretty tough weekend this weekend, they put Italy to the sword (last Saturday) and the side that we played against were probably a bit depleted in areas,” McGrath said. “They’re going to be coming at full strength this weekend, so for us to be fully switched on is a massive thing.

“It’s nothing to do it just once, we want to be able to back it up and that’s the focus for the week because we know how dangerous they are when you sort of take your eye off them. They’re a dangerous enough team without taking your eye off them, so that’s an area that we will have to concentrate on.

“If we were to do it a second time in a row, that stamps it in their mind. These anomalies can happen, 18 wins in a row and they might have come to Chicago and taken their foot off the gas a little bit. For us, it’s really important not to drop off our intensity, if anything, we’re going to up it. That’s where we’re at.”

McGrath believes Ireland cannot but go into Saturday’s rematch with confidence boosted after running in five tries past New Zealand last time around having weathered a blistering second-half fightback from 30-8 down to 33-29 with 15 minutes to go. Furthermore the Irish performance has only given them a taste for further glory against the best team in the world.

“Probably the monkey is off our back but when you’ve a win like that, you want to win again, and for us as a group, it’s an area that we feel really good about, that we can go ahead and go for two from two against that group of players because we’ve done it before.

“It was a really confidence- boosting thing, especially with the amount of young guys on the team and you’d have to feel great for the guys who have been there for 10-12 years plugging away; the likes of Rory being the first Irish captain to ever captain a winning team against the All Blacks is a huge thing. Personally, I just want more and more of that.”

Ireland have been in similar territory before, not least this year. McGrath was part of the side, led by Rory Best, that claimed a first Test win in South Africa as the 14-man tourists beat the Springboks in Cape Town, only to let slip a series victory in the two Tests that followed.

Which makes pushing on from this isolated victory paramount in his mind.

“It is huge. How South Africa went, the second Test we had them and we let them back in. I think it was 26-10 with 15 minutes to go, you can’t at international level let a team come back and win with 15 minutes to go — it is blasphemy.

“We probably learned a lot from that tour alone. The way the game (against the All Blacks) went in 2013, we need to be able to finish off games. I thought we finished off the game against New Zealand in Chicago when it was pretty tight, I think (the Irish lead) was four points and we went and we attacked them.

“For us to go after them, we can’t rest on our laurels, we are at home we are in front of our families. It is going to be an emotional day, it is going to be a special day, not many people get to play the All Blacks two out of three weeks and I think it is a huge task for us, the squad that we have is well able for it.

“We know how dangerous they are and they are going to have their guys back in Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, and Jerome Kaino back in the back row. For them alone in the lineout, they make it so much more solid and that’s an area they faltered against us in Chicago. So for us, it is not patting ourselves on the back there is plenty of things we could improve on from Chicago, we know they weren’t at their best, we will definitely be at our best in the weekend. I think it has been said that we poked a New Zealand bear and it is coming back as a big deal to come up and beat them.

“A lot of things happen once off. But do it twice in a row, that’s when people sit up and listen and to be taken seriously as an Irish team and as a nation, we have to step up on Saturday and back up what we did in Chicago.”