When Rory Best and Conor Murray think back to Ireland’s historic victory over the All Blacks in 2016, important messages from two key figures in the dressing room at half-time remain as clear as day.
Without a win over New Zealand in 28 attempts spanning 111 years, Ireland led the world champions 25-8 after a sensational first-half onslaught at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
The All Blacks, hunting a 19th successive win, were expected to roar back in the second half and break Irish hearts like they had done in 2013 when, after trailing 22-7 at the break, they snatched a last-gasp 24-22 win in Dublin.
Three years on, as Ireland flirted with an emotional win just weeks after the death of Munster boss and ex-Irish international Anthony Foley, head coach Joe Schmidt and talismanic fly-half Johnny Sexton made sure to remind everyone that the job was only half done.
“Johnny pointed out, ‘We’ve got to keep playing’ and I remember Joe saying ‘We’re going to score again’. He was really good with the belief,” Murray recalled on the first episode of the Ireland Rugby Social, the BBC’s new rugby union podcast.
Legendary Ireland scrum-half Murray, who co-presents the podcast alongside Gavin Andrews, says Schmidt told the players not to celebrate if they scored again.
But as the significance of the occasion took over, those in green struggled to stay poker-faced after Simon Zebo’s try pushed Ireland further out of sight.
“Next thing was we had a maul on their five [metre line], went down and Zeebs scored in the corner and we went mental,” added Murray.
“I jumped up on Zeebs and Johnny, this is the important factor, he jumped up on me and Zeebs as well and that meant we couldn’t get given out to after the game.
“Even though we would win, Joe would still remind you, ‘remember I told you to do that and you disobeyed me’, but Johnny was there and we went ‘brilliant’.”
