Ireland’s ‘total rugby’ team poised for World Cup history against All Blacks

What do Bundee Aki, James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park and Mack Hansen have in common? The simple answer is that they all play for Ireland, and are shining at the Rugby World Cup.

The more detailed answer is that they were all disregarded by their home countries – New Zealand in the case of Aki, Gibson-Park and Lowe, and Australia with Hansen. This weekend, that oversight may come back to bite the All Blacks when they face the Irish in one of two blockbuster quarter-finals. 

After not being able to do so for 111 years, Ireland finally beat New Zealand in Chicago in 2016. They have since met seven times, with the Irish prevailing in four. That is a quite a record against any team, let alone one of the winningest teams in all sports.

Can they do it again? 

One big reason they can is those four foreign-born players, all of whom represented provincial teams in the Super Rugby tournament without piquing the interest of national selectors.

Gibson-Park and Lowe played for the Maori All Blacks but went no further, while Aki never got close to that. Hansen played for the Brumbies but no higher.

The quartet have allowed Ireland to play a kind of rugby that is closest to the “total football” of the 1970s Netherlands football teams.

Ireland are a superbly trained side of many fluently moving parts. Not only do they have world-class players in every department, but they also have players with a greater range of skills than the average player.

In this respect, Aki is the most limited. But what the centre does, he does thunderingly well, crashing through defences and putting his team on the front-foot and over the advantage line.

He is also a strong defender who jackals like a back-rower, exactly the kind of No. 12 New Zealand must wish they had right now.

Fellow Kiwi Gibson-Park showed his versatility in the thrashing of Scotland by starting as usual at scrum-half, from where he set the team’s high tempo, but finishing on the wing, where he looked just at home. 

The wingers, Lowe and Hansen, also live up to the “total rugby” blueprint, with either one often popping up as the first receiver or providing kicking outlets when required.

Ireland also possess front-rowers who patrol the breakdown like back-rowers, and locks and flankers who interchange as needed.

Like the famous Dutch side of the 1970s led by Johan Cruyff, Ireland also have a temperamental, testy leader pulling the strings in fly-half Johnny Sexton. But there’s a lot more to unpack about this game and especially their opposition.

Ireland have never gone past the World Cup quarter-finals, and their biggest defeat happened at this stage four years ago – 46-14 against the All Blacks. 

The Irish have been the world’s top team over the past two years or so, but this is New Zealand we’re talking about. The All Blacks have been improving with each game in this tournament, but this is not one of their vintage versions. 

They do have some fantastic players, such as Will Jordan, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett and Ardie Savea, but there is a lack of mana, or aura, aside perhaps from the locks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, either of whom should have been named captain some time ago. 

Instead, they are led by the injury-prone flanker Sam Cane, the man described to his face as “a s**t Richie McCaw” by Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony. 

If Ireland win, they will equal the record of 18 consecutive victories by a top-tier nation, held by England and, no surprise, New Zealand.

Should that happen, win No. 19 should be a formality – though Wales or Argentina, who contest the other quarter-final, should never be underestimated. 

Besides Ireland, the other team left who have never made the semi-finals are Fiji – and they are unlikely to have a better chance to make history.

The Flying Fijians have shown their remarkable inconsistency by almost defeating group winners Wales, beating two-time champions Australia, before being edged by Georgia and then losing to Portugal.

A game against England, whom they beat just before the World Cup, could bring out their underdog side again. Fiji have been a stark improvement on previous models, especially in their scrummaging, breakdown work and discipline. 

Their main weakness though is one of England’s strongest suits: The line-out. It will be in Fiji’s interests, then, to keep the ball in hand – something they do better than most. 

However, the loss of fly-half Caleb Muntz just before the tournament has been a real drawback, with his replacements proving poor pivots.

But, as long as Fiji get the ball quickly to the men outside – Josua Tuisova, Semi Radradra and Waisea Nayacalevu – they will have a good chance of an upset.

They would also do well to test England’s fullback, the Singapore-trained, half-Filipino Marcus Smith, who is deadly in attack, but less than starchy in defence. 

The choice of Smith, at the expense of midfield general George Ford and giant fullback Freddie Steward, indicates that England are planning to out-Fiji Fiji. That could prove either a masterstroke by coach Steve Borthwick or a gross misjudgment.