LONG READ 'These fellas are Gods' - Ireland's quest to sack the Eden Park fortress

Donncha O’Callaghan and Moss Keane hated touring New Zealand. One part, O’Callaghan reasoned, was leaving an Irish summer to land in a Kiwi winter. “The biggest part,” he added, “was every tour of New Zealand involved playing the All Blacks. Those matches never turned out the way we hoped.”

O’Callaghan toured New Zealand in 2005 with the British & Irish Lions and 2006 with Ireland. He returned there in 2011 for the World Cup. When players of his generation think of Eden Park, their minds hark back to the one good memory they have – defeating Australia 15-6 – there in that 2011 tournament.

New Zealand are currently on a 52-match unbeaten run at Eden Park. Four of their wins at their Auckland base have come against Ireland, in 2002, 2006, 2012 and 2022. The Irish have scored a total of 54 points over those four games. The All Blacks have scored 151. On all four occasions, Ireland supporters have trudged back up Bellwood Avenue and consoled themselves with a cold beer and commiserating words at The Clare Inn.

Back in 2002, New Zealand were eight years undefeated at Eden Park, but it had not yet become ‘The Fortress’. Ireland ran their hosts close at Carisbrook – The House of Pain – in the opening Test of a tour with Warren Gatland in charge. “We actually changed up defensively,” Ronan O’Gara said. “It was a bit of an Andy Farrell special – before its time – where we left the last two attackers from New Zealand and went man-on, and created problems for them. We could have won the game. It doesn’t happen very often over there but it’s the first Test and you do get a chance to beat them.”

A week later at Eden Park, Ireland tried to repeat that defensive dose. The All Blacks had it all figured out. They also started Jonah Lonu, who had been a replacement in Dunedin.

“I remember Jonah – God rest him – coming at me plenty of times, and trying to hang on to his bootlaces,” said O’Gara. “They had some unbelievable names in their team. Andrew Mehrtens was out-half. It was great, even back then, playing against them.” Ireland, who had current assistant coach Simon Easterby at blindside, lost 40-8.

Twelve Ireland players were in the Lions squad in 2005, but the Test series was already over, with injured captain Brian O’Driscoll watching grimly on, when they headed to Eden Park for the final game. Geordan Murphy was the Lions’ third full-back in three Tests, after Jason Robinson and Josh Lewsey. In his book, The Outsider, Murphy recalled, “They destroyed us. All I remember is the black jerseys flooding through our lines very early on. They were a great team, while we were no team at all.”

Eddie O’Sullivan was at the helm when Ireland returned to Aotearoa in 2006. Much of the focus was on O’Driscoll getting a proper crack at the All Blacks, after being spear-tackled out of the Lions tour. A huge contingent of Ireland fans flooded into Hamilton for the opening Test. It was 24-23 to New Zealand heading into the closing stages, but Luke McAlister and Troy Flavell closed out a nervy home win. “A week later,” O’Callaghan recalled, “we rattled them, at Eden Park, without looking like winning.”

Ireland lost one-off Tests against New Zealand in 2008 in Wellington and 2010 in New Plymouth, but got another chance to end that ever-lengthening Eden Park streak in 2012. The Irish press corps sat with coach Declan Kidney early one morning as he called out the matchday squad and provided quotes. Kidney was in relaxed mood and explained each of his selections well. Simon Zebo and Declan Fitzpatrick would make their Test debuts, with uncapped Ronan Loughney on the bench and 22-year-old Peter O’Mahony at blindside.

After eight months without international rugby, I’m shocked by the step up in intensity. We can’t live with them.

The biggest call was playing O’Driscoll at inside centre, although Keith Earls, his midfield partner, insisted he keep the 13 jersey. As Kidney talked through his decisions, it all made sense. A bold plan went well, for about 25 minutes. Then, Julian Savea scored. Then he scored again, and again. O’Driscoll, who had missed the 2012 Six Nations after undergoing shoulder surgery, would later confess, “After eight months without international rugby, I’m shocked by the step up in intensity. We can’t live with them – it ends 42-10.”

Conor Murray, in his book, Cloud Nine, stated, “Kieran Read was unbelievable in this first Test. Sonny Bill Williams was an absolute juggernaut. These fellas are gods… They played faster than any team I’d ever known. One fella would steal a yard or two and, the next thing, they’ve a line break and, all of a sudden, they’re racing for your line.”

Rob Kearney played in all three Tests of that 2012 tour and maintains referee Nigel Owens “did us at the scrum”, minutes before Dan Carter – with a second bite of the cherry – won a thrilling second Test 22-19. Kearney would eventually feature in two Test wins over the All Blacks but what he recalls from 2012 is how lethal their attack could be, as the harrowing third and final Test proved.

“The third Test is imprinted in my mind, what the All Blacks are capable of. It was 60-0 and it could have been more. The strangest thing about that is we had felt genuinely hard done-by and that, seven days prior to that, we should have beaten them in Christchurch.

“I guess this current All Blacks side doesn’t have the same mystique as that team from 10 years ago. To me, that All Blacks team of 2011 and 2015 are the greatest rugby team I have ever witnessed. I don’t think this current set of players have the same ability to beat us by 60 points. We are also a far better team than we were back in 2012. But the All Blacks, and the allure and mystique that goes with them, every team that plays them knows if you are not quite on it, they can put up a cricket score on you.”

It would be 10 more years before Ireland would return to Eden Park. By then, embossed by a 30-15 Test win over the 2017 Lions, the Auckland ground was exactly where visiting teams did not want to play. To hear how Andrew Porter describes that match in his tome, Heart on my Sleeve, feels like history repeating. “We’d started the game so strongly, with Keith Earls’ try, but the Kiwis began to exert a huge amount of pressure, filleting us fairly quickly with four tries before half-time.”

Ireland would lose captain Johnny Sexton to concussion before the break, and the game 42-19. Farrell’s side would rally superbly, however. They won 23-12 in Dunedin, with Porter scoring two tries, and clinched an historic series win by defeating New Zealand 32-22 at Wellington’s less imposing ‘Cake Tin’. Farrell is excited at the prospect of potentially ending this 52-game run at ‘The Fortress’.

“It’s fantastic,” the Ireland coach insists. “I feel we’re the fortunate ones and we are the lucky ones, in the sense that we get the opportunity to go to Eden Park. We had that fortune in 2022, first game up. Obviously, we couldn’t get that over the line. So, we’re pretty lucky to be back there and have another shot at it.”

“The guys will be smart enough to know that New Zealand are smart enough to know that they pick and choose what matches they do play there,” Kearney adds. He notes the All Blacks have not faced South Africa, the reigning, two-time world champions in Auckland much in recent years. That is correct, in that New Zealand defeated the Springboks there in 2025, but previously faced them at that venue in 2013 (their Eden Park record against them since 1994 is five wins and a draw).

Kearney continues: “It will also be a little bit of an added incentive to Ireland – that the All Blacks have decided to play Ireland at Eden Park. You try and use whatever bits of motivation that you can.

“It’s far more beneficial for Ireland to be playing them on the third week of a tour, as opposed to the first week. Now, in saying that, they’ll still have to improve a lot on a number of areas, and on the performances that we’ve seen over the last two weeks, if they want to be in with a chance. It’s not that there is something necessarily different about this team, but I do believe we will see the very best of them this week.”

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