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.

Two weeks on from the heroics of Soldier Field and with New Zealand in Dublin seeking instant retribution, there would be no better time to lay down a signal of Irish intentions than by defeating the world champions for a second time in short succession.

The weight has finally been lifted from Ireland’s shoulders after 111 years of trying but full-back Kearney and his comrades have piled the pressure back on by not settling for that 40-29 win as a career highlight. A defeat at the Aviva to Kieran Read’s men in black this Saturday would remove some of the sheen of that achievement.

“In the present moment, it probably would,” Kearney said. “The fact that we’ve beaten them once, we’ve gotten the monkey off our back for the history books and for every other Irish team that plays them. They will take the field knowing that it has been done.

“In three or four weeks, when we reflect on this block of games, what happens on Saturday will play a fair bit in determining just how good an autumn it was.”

Being part of the first Ireland team to beat the All Blacks was “brilliant”, Kearney conceded, but was “something for when we retire”.

“For us it’s all about the here and now, and a huge amount of that is about Saturday, if we go out and don’t put a good performance together, it will take the gloss off it a little bit. It won’t take away from the win and the history we’ve achieved, but when we review in November and the immediate future, it will certainly take the gloss off it.

“Naturally, as professional athletes, we have that in our DNA , that competitive edge. You get greedy, you achieve something, straight away you’re looking to the next thing or what you can achieve next. It will send out a real statement to world rugby, sometimes Irish teams in the past may have been guilty of getting up for one game, putting in a massive performance and not turning up the following week. If we want to be really successful down the line, and compete really strongly at World Cups, you need to back it up five, six, seven weeks on the bounce. And there’s no more perfect time than now.”

Ireland have quickly brought themselves down to earth since arriving back home from America. The XV that started in Chicago, minus the injured Jordi Murphy, were put to work preparing the team which faced Canada in Dublin last weekend while the review of the New Zealand game pulled no punches for the players who will be sent back out to face the All Blacks once more this weekend.

They know there is a big response coming from the wounded world champions and they accept they will have to up their performance from the one which was enough to secure that excellent win.

“It’s really important that we’re honest about where we were too,” Kearney said. “I think they played pretty poorly, albeit we didn’t give them a huge amount of ball to work with and we put them under pressure and we forced some errors.

“It wasn’t the New Zealand that we had been used to seeing throughout The Rugby Championship. Their lineout was poor. Some of their handling was pretty poor. They conceded five tries in the whole Championship and we score five against them.

“If we’re being honest, it wasn’t the New Zealand that we’ve all come to know. It’s really important that we, as a group, recognise and understand that. But, then, we’ll take a huge amount of confidence from knowing there are areas we can improve on too.

“There were times when we could have done things a hell of a lot better.”

Kearney put in an individual performance to remember, having feared he might not be selected at all given his recent injury profile and lack of convincing form. Yet like the team overall, he feels he cannot afford to let that display remain a one-off.

“There is a little confidence back. But, I need to back it up. The onus is on me to do that.

“It was probably a difficult enough week. It was the first time in a while where my selection was under doubt and I wasn’t sure, so you’re grateful of the opportunity, but at the same time you know that you don’t have too many more chances either.

“There was a fair bit of pressure on me. Personal pressure, but then there was outside pressure too, which you try not to let affect you too much but it is there and it’s something that you know is there.

“It was my own choice to try and ignore it as best I could.

“For me now, it’s about looking forward and making sure that I back it up.

“It’s no good having one good game and coming down the following week and having a poor one.”