Rob Kearney: Let’s prove Chicago was no fluke

In the immediate aftermath of Ireland’s historic win over the All Blacks, Joe Schmidt joked that he did not really care too much about what his players achieved during the rest of the November Test campaign.

“I think I actually said something inadvertently during the week like ‘well if you win here, I don’t really care too much about what you do the rest of the series’,” he had said that famous night in Chicago.

There is no possibility the Irish head coach actually believed what he was saying but even if there was a grain of seriousness to it, his charges would have ignored him. As Rob Kearney highlights, this is an Ireland squad intent on making further impact on the world scene, not resting on its laurels.