Rory Best: Defeat would take gloss off Chicago victory

Ireland captain Rory Best has told his players to forget Chicago as they set about beating the All Blacks all over again this evening at the Aviva Stadium.

Best fears a defeat to world champions New Zealand in Dublin tonight will not just take the gloss off his Ireland’s historic first win over them a fortnight ago but undermine the direction they are travelling in under head coach Joe Schmidt.

The danger, the hooker feels, is thoughts of that epic 40-29 victory could lead to a loss of focus and a tail-off in performance as happened during the summer tour to South Africa, when he led his side to another first, beating the Springboks on their home soil. Ireland won the opening Test in Cape Town with only 14 men for 58 minutes following the dismissal of CJ Stander, and then jumped into a 26-10 lead in the second match in Johannesburg only to lose that and the final Test.