Shambolic production and stuttering play made big rematch a real letdown

A stop-start game on a poor pitch was not the ideal way to see the game stateside. 

MY KIND OF TOWN: New Zealand fans celebrate late in the game. Pic: INPHO/Photosport/David Banks

Ireland 13 New Zealand 26 

High up in what All Blacks coach Scott Robertson had called ‘a cruise ship of a stand’ Shane Lowry was perched in a Soldier Field skybox. Alongside Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray, both getting used to now being bystanders on these days, he took in the spectacle that was ‘The Rematch’, Ireland and New Zealand gathering again nine years after a historic Saturday at the same venue.