The exact point in time at which the All Blacks started to feel differently about Ireland is a matter of contention.
There are some who say it was that glorious day at Soldier Field in Chicago 2016 when Ireland made history and beat the All Blacks for the first time.
Certainly, that win changed the All Blacks from seeing Ireland as a team that could huff and puff but never quite blow the house down, to one that had at last found the mental resolve and physical grunt to finish what they started.
But so too, even allowing for the sense of occasion on such a momentous day, was there a little surprise – the snooty, passive aggressive kind – that Ireland enjoyed the moment quite as much as they did.
Teams overcelebrating victories – and the All Blacks have long seen themselves as the sole arbiters of what constitutes too much joy – has been a pet hate for decades.
The Australians had form for that, going a bit nuts in 2010 when they broke a nine-match losing sequence, and maybe Ireland’s big sin that day in Chicago was to remind the All Blacks of the Wallabies.
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The contention is, though, that it was actually two weeks later when the All Blacks came to Dublin that their view of Ireland turned decidedly dim.
The All Blacks came hunting their revenge in the rematch and they extracted it, almost literally taking a pound of flesh.
They won 21-9 in what was arguably the most brutal Test ever played between the two.
It was wild at times – collisions that seemed to be reckless, neck rolls, high tackles and lots of feisty exchanges, lingering looks and a sense of bad blood simmering.
Robbie Henshaw was carried off after a head clash with Sam Cane that was ruled accidental, and All Blacks centre Malakai Fekitoa somehow avoided red for a high tackle on Simon Zebo that would have drastically reshaped the game if it had been shown (it was later upgraded from yellow at the judicial hearing).
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But the All Blacks felt they only gave as good as they got. Ireland dished plenty of under-the-counter stuff and Johnny Sexton was deemed to be lucky not to be yellow carded for a high tackle on Beauden Barrett when the New Zealand number 10 scored under the posts in a try that was disallowed.
The All Blacks felt it should have been all smiles and handshakes after – deemed a ferocious contest that reflected the passion and commitment of both teams and their respective desire to play on the edge of the laws.
That wasn’t how it went though. Head coach Steve Hansen felt he was unfairly ambushed by RTÉ’s Clare MacNamara in the post-match interview, after she asked him a different version of the same question four times, until he snapped: “Where are we going with this? Do you want me to say that we are a dirty team or something?”
He’d barely calmed down the next day before he was set off by hearing that Ireland’s manager Mick Kearney said that 11, not two, All Blacks – Cane and Fekitoa – should have been cited.
Ireland, it seemed, managed to simultaneously win and lose the All Blacks respect with that response and what came out of the events of 2016 was a change in the nature of the relationship.
Ireland became a team whose ability the All Blacks greatly respected, but a team who they also felt were prone to being too easily upset if things didn’t go their way. Worse, they thought Ireland were whiners.
This souring of the relationship has made for brilliant drama of course and some great tests – none more memorable than the quarter-final epic last year in Paris, which was without doubt the most enjoyable victory for the All Blacks since they won the 2015 World Cup.
There was so much tied up in that win – so many reasons why it meant everything to the All Blacks.
There was a sense of rebirth almost as Ireland had inflicted so many mental wounds on the All Blacks when they had last met, in July 2022.
Ireland gave New Zealand a rugby lesson in that series. They exposed so many flaws in the All Blacks – from the outdated way they defended, to their weak driving maul defence, to their lack of kicking strategy – that it led to two assistant coaches being sacked and head coach Ian Foster only just saving his job.
Then there was the niggle that was ever present in that series. There was Peter O’Mahony’s famous quote to Cane when the Irishman said to the All Blacks captain: “Who do you think you are? You’re a shit Richie McCaw pal.”
There was a heated exchange between Sexton and All Blacks reserve hooker Dane Coles on the sideline in Auckland, and Brodie Retallick was combustible that his cheek was broken by Andrew Porter’s forearm and it was ruled a yellow card on the basis that the All Blacks lock absorbed the impact with his face.
And dominating the series was Sexton’s petulance with referees, his desire to let his opinion be known about every decision, and his need to exchange words with every All Black he felt needed to hear from him.
Ask individual All Blacks quietly what they think of Sexton and they say that he was a brilliant player and a great bloke to have a beer with, but on the field they didn’t love the way he harangued referees and had so much to say for himself.
So when the All Blacks won in Paris, Rieko Ioane couldn’t find it within himself to be gracious in victory and instead took his chance to add to Sexton’s torment by wishing him a not so happy retirement.
It was petty, unbecoming and not within the All Blacks values systems, but since Sexton revealed what happened in his biography, New Zealanders have been relatively forgiving and understanding of Ioane.
It wasn’t classy but it was understandable and human, and it has set up this Friday’s clash with a whole new subplot and layer of intrigue to see how the Dublin crowd reacts to Ioane and to see how both sets of players react to each other.
This was already shaping as the pivotal match for the All Blacks on an end-of-year schedule that sees them play England, Ireland, France and Italy in consecutive weeks.
Now it has a whole new level of pressure attached – a deeper intensity driven off the narratives that will run in the build-up to the game, and the overwhelming sense that Ireland are going to test the All Blacks in a way they haven’t been tested this year.
The All Blacks, who have won seven of their 10 tests this year but haven’t really convinced with the rugby they have played, need this game against a fired up and highly motivated Ireland to get a better sense of where they truly sit in the world pecking order.
They need a win in an undeniably hostile venue against an undeniably world-class side motivated to the eyeballs, to provide an evidential basis that they are growing.
The All Blacks played back-to-back tests in South Africa earlier this year, but this one-off game in Dublin is arguably going to be tougher – facing an Irish team that has proven itself to be the Springboks’ equal and will be fuelled by an extraordinary sense of wanting to make amends for the events in Paris last year.
