Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara joined Off The Ball on Monday for a special episode of the Classic Game Club, revisiting Ireland's historic win over the All Blacks in Chicago.
The performance is often overshadowed by Ireland's next win over New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium, so it was put to O'Driscoll and O'Gara that this performance may not have gotten the respect it deserved.
Listen to BOD and ROG dissect the Soldier Field win on the Radio at 8 tonight!@vodafoneireland #TeamOfUs pic.twitter.com/8ptwAqIzmd
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) April 20, 2020
The former Leinster centre was quick to counter the point that New Zealand weren't great on the day: "They weren’t allowed be great."
"I think the performance and the result is massively underrated in the bigger scheme of Irish games in the last 125 years.
"It's taken us that long to win it against the All Blacks. It was only televised locally and I think BT had it over here, who didn't have that many subscribers at the time.
"The masses didn't get to see it and it went under the radar too much so and that's a huge shame.
"The manner in which Ireland won it and as ROG said needed to win it twice showed guts and balls where in the past we've fallen foul.
"That's the coming of that side and it allowed them to go on and win again against the All Blacks."
"That second game (win against New Zealand) almost seems like a bigger game than the one in Soldier Field, but it shouldn't be.
"We won in a neutral venue against the odds, playing unbelievable stuff, scoring forty points against the All Blacks and I don't care what they (NZ) did during the week, that was their choice to go and do extra promotional work and whatever else.
"For me, a phenomenal performance that deserved more credit."
Celebrations post-All Blacks
O'Driscoll's passionate argument for the under-appreciation of the win was echoed by O'Gara.
"I think all you need to look at is the reaction of the players when Henshaw scores, it says everything. I don't know what it was like in Joe's reign, but (before) celebrations weren't allowed.
"The boys lose their mind for a bit, and that's what you want to see, that's why we support this team, it was unbelievable."
"Then when the final whistle goes because it was a two-score game, just that relief and then the satisfaction of a squad effort."
"Ireland had to pull out all the stops to win the game," was O'Gara's concluding point as to how the game was no exhibition game.
Everyone’s in the Team Of Us.
Vodafone. The Official Sponsor of the Irish Rugby Team.
