Nuanced approach required in assessing Ireland tour

Ireland will face the All Blacks this week to start off the summer series. It will be preceded by a return to midweek games, with an exciting battle against the Maori All Blacks on Wednesday morning.

Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand, never mind a full series. The closest some of our players have gotten to that is drawing with the All Blacks while wearing their Lions colours and beating the them both in Ireland and in a neutral venue in Chicago.

So how do we measure success for this tour? Is it realistic to just expect to win down there because we have beaten them before? I don't think so.

Playing rugby in New Zealand, with their level of public expectation and winning at home being the status quo, we are destined not to win the series. That’s not being negative, it’s realistic based on the previous evidence. I’m not saying that this Irish team isn’t good enough to win the series, they are. But winning it and being good enough to win it are two different things.

To win the series, you need a few things to go in your favour. You need the senior players to step up and have some of their best games in quite a while. We need Sexton to stay fit and guide us through at least two of those games.

We also need surprises from less internationally recognised players, the level of performance that Mack Hansen gave in the Six Nations.

The All Blacks will be very familiar with some Irish players, such as Sexton, but less familiar with others and these are the guys that will have to sneak in under the radar and add to the performance.

Ireland will also need a bit of luck, which they may have already received considering how Covid-19 has struck the All Blacks camp much worse than the Irish camp, with our current