After one of the most anticipated Test matches on the end-of-year tour, former All Black Jeff Wilson has criticized Ireland and how they played in Dublin.
Wilson’s comments come after the off-field drama with Johnny Sexton and Rieko Ioane added extra fire to an already storied rivalry between Ireland and the All Blacks.
Both Ioane and Sexton were in the headlines last month, after an extract from Sextons new book “Obsessed” was released. The exchange was after last year’s blockbuster quarter final between Ireland and the All Blacks where Ioane allegedly said “Don’t miss your flight home tomorrow. Enjoy your retirement, you c**t.’”
The story continued, with Ioane leading the All Blacks haka in Dublin against Ireland, before posting on Instagram after the victory claiming “Put that in the book” referencing Sexton’s new book, which has only intensified the rivalry once again.
Speaking on Sky Sports New Zealand’s Breakdown, Wilson believes it was an average spectacle on the weekend.
“It didn’t live up to expectations, the first 40 minutes were dire, and as a whole combination of things whether it be scrum resets or whether it be the mistakes both teams were making the fact there were so many penalties. Obviously, the weather conditions in some way contributed to that.” Wilson said on The Breakdown.
Ireland’s expectations for this Test match were clearly higher than what was showcased, only really troubling the All Blacks in the short stint when they had 14 men in the second half.
When asked about what he thought about Ireland’s performance against the All Blacks, Wilson didn’t hold back on criticizing Andy Farrell’s team.
“Ireland didn’t show up, they didn’t show up for this test match”.
The Breakdown panel was questioned about how satisfied they were with the All Blacks beating the previously world number one ranked Ireland.
“It’s nowhere near as satisfying as it’s been because they were nowhere near their best, and it was great for the All Blacks, and satisfying because I think it was our best performance, cause we took them out of the game, but Ireland weren’t there, they did not come and play anything like the number one team in the world,” said Wilson.
Ireland has since dropped to third in the International World Rugby rankings with 90.58 points, behind the All Blacks (2nd – 91.2 ) and South Africa (1st – 92.46).
Ireland’s performance on the field wasn’t up to their recent standards, but Wilson wasn’t sold on their body language in Dublin.
“But if you look at their anthem for example, I didn’t see the passion I saw last year at the rugby world cup where you start seeing how desperate they were, you heard them talking during the week about it’s not a revenge game, their coach is talking about it, their captain is talking about it not being a revenge game.
The 60 Test All Black challenged the mindset of the Ireland players, saying there was a clear lack of motivation in their poor performance.
“I’m sorry if you’re playing the All Blacks, and it’s a game you want to win, you tap into everything you need to possibly win, you have to execute and you have motivation, it’s like they took some of the motivation out, you took that away.
“They had nothing in that game, bar the fact they got a bit of luck just after halftime to get some field position, and we were down to 14 men, they didn’t threaten us pretty much for most of that game.
