Behind The Scenes: Silverware And Series Joy For Ireland In Wellington
Conor Murray and Tadhg Beirne celebrate with the Steinlager Series International Cup after the trophy presentation in Wellington ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
Relive one of the greatest days in Irish rugby history with our exclusive Tunnel Cam, which captured some of the behind-the-scenes moments from Ireland’s Test series-clinching 32-22 win over New Zealand.
South Africa in 1934, Australia in both 1949 and 1986, the British & Irish Lions in 1971 and most recently, France in 1994. That shows you how difficult a challenge it is win a series on New Zealand soil.
Ireland are only the sixth touring team – and the first in the professional era – to win a series away to the All Blacks.
Bouncing back from a 42-19 defeat in Auckland at the start of their summer tour, Andy Farrell’s men triumphed in Dunedin (23-12) and followed up with a fantastic four-try salvo in the deciding game in Wellington.
Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Andrew Porter (2), Josh van der Flier, Hugo Keenan, Robbie Henshaw and Rob Herring all contributed tries during the series, with captain Jonathan Sexton kicking 25 points and Joey Carbery four.
Savouring the history-making victory at Sky Stadium, centre Henshaw told Irish Rugby TV: “That was a hell of a Test match, it had everything. We came out of the blocks again. We knew they’d come back in the second half, we knew they were coming for us.
“We weren’t shocked by that. It was backs to the wall. To go two scores down and come back, score and get a few points on the board, it just shows the character of the squad and what we’re building here. It’s something special.
“Sometimes it’s a common trend with teams, you go and you achieve something special (like last week) and then the challenge is to back it up and do it again and go further.
“It’s one of those weeks where the coaches looked after us. We were fresh for this game – we only trained once and then we rocked into it and we knew what we had to do because we were looked after well.
“To go that step further from last week, we knew that we could (do it). It was just inner belief in the squad.”