'I'm troubled about what New Zealand need to do': John Kirwan on fixing All Blacks

Former All Black great John Kirwan is ‘unsettled’ after witnessing the manner in which Ireland defeated the All Blacks to claim a historic series win in Wellington over the weekend.

Speaking on The Breakdown panel, Kirwan claimed that Ireland had become the world’s best team after coming back from 1-nil down to make history with a series win on New Zealand soil.

But it was the path ahead for the All Blacks that troubled him most, after watching a ‘clunky display’ of attack that failed to deliver in such an important game.

The Breakdown | Episode 21

The Breakdown | Episode 21

“I’ve been reflecting all day, the Irish were amazing. They are a very good side, number one in the world now,” Kirwan praised.

“But I’m troubled about what New Zealand need to do to turn this around.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day, what we need to do, technically, tactically, we are talking about getting rid of an All Black coach for the first time in the history of the game.

“There is a lot of things at play and it unsettles me quite a bit. I’ve been in those changing rooms, I’ve been in those coaching situations, it’s just horrible.”

Kirwan’s gut feeling toward Ireland before the third test was that they would win but he couldn’t come to terms with comments from the Irish camp that referred to New Zealand as the world’s best team.

“Farrell has taken over from Joe [Schmidt] and really accelerated to become the world’s best around the ruck I believe, world’s best at attacking patterns, world best defensively probably as well.

“Last night I didn’t have the courage to say Ireland would win, but I felt it in my heart.

“This Irish team, every time they get a chance they say we [New Zealand] are world champs, best in the world, but I’m not seeing it.

“We look clunky. I liked what the All Blacks were trying to do on attack, because I thought they were predictable and we asked them to change. But we were just clunky, guys were over running it.

“It just looked we were off the game, I couldn’t believe it.”

One man with knowledge of the internal workings of the Ireland setup, Leinster great Isa Nacewa, joined the panel to discuss the famous result and shared a perspective from directly inside the Irish camp.

“I talked to Johnny Sexton last night and he was saying that this was way bigger than Chicago,” Nacewa said.

“They came down here and had the mindset of winning a series. To be there, with that mindset, started a long time ago. They were so far down, they came here with confidence, they came down here to breed players.

“They said that performance last night was better than all the previous ones.”

Ireland first tasted success against the All Blacks in 2016 under Joe Schmidt, who pioneered another victory at home in 2018 before a disappointing defeat in the quarter-final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

With his assistant Andy Farrell taking over the team, Ireland have continued their success against New Zealand and taken it even further.

When asked about what Andy Farrell brings to the squad, Nacewa said the belief he instills in everyone in camp has fuelled Irish rugby to another level.

“He just knows how to drive belief within a squad, and for the staff as well,” Nacewa said.

“Ireland have scored more tries this year than any other international team. They love and have fun playing this type of attack, but he is so critical in those reviews around what the system is.

“All the players across the board, they just default into knowing what to do, where to be on the field which is the complete opposite from what I saw from the All Blacks. Not just last night, but for awhile now.

“All the players just know how to do their job, do it really well, show up and just default into position, but that takes months, years to actually get to that.

“It didn’t happen off the bat for Andy Farrell straight away, but they continued to win games, they only lost a couple and got better and then the belief came.

“It was off the back of shedding the Joe Schmidt era, trusting a new process, getting there and everyone just buying into it.

“The last three weeks it worked, but it showed a long time before that.”