New Zealand's All Blacks engaged in some slightly unusual match preparation as they kicked Gaelic footballs and struck sliotars with Dublin schoolchildren ahead of tomorrow's crunch encounter with Ireland.
The sense of awe and wonderment in the eyes of the children of St Laurence O'Toole's Christian Brothers and primary schools was clear for all to see as the world's most powerful rugby team walked into the Sheriff YC Community Centre in Dublin's north inner city on Friday morning.
The sound of the haka reverberated around the building as the guests of honour were treated to a rendition of their famous war-dance by the primary school boys and girls. They were also joined by Dublin footballers and hurlers who shared their knowledge of the games with the foreign sportsmen.
“It reminds me of my school days, we had inter-school games and we have the haka between two schools. It’s pretty awesome that the local people have gotten behind the rugby here,” said New Zealand’s Scott Barrett, a man who is more familiar with Ireland than most of his counterparts.
The giant lock lived in Oldcastle, Co Meath, with his family for 18 months in 2000 when he was a child, and says he still has close ties with friends from that period who he met up with at his team's base in Castleknock Hotel earlier this week.
Barrett admits that the pressure is on New Zealand tomorrow following their defeat to Ireland in Chicago earlier this month: "You can look at it as pressure or you can use it to your advantage. There is a little bit of pressure and expectation, but we can't let that get under our skin."
Controversial conversion
Indeed, he believes a bit of fortune may have deserted the home team during their last crack at the All Blacks in the Aviva Stadium in 2013 – a 22-24 defeat sealed by a controversial re-taken conversion kick.
“The All Blacks were pretty lucky to get away with that one, the Irish were a little bit hard done by.”
Barrett's Irish exposure proved useful as he was a dab hand with the hurl and sliothar, while team-mate Aaron Cruden eventually got the hang of the camán to fire a few rasping shots past Dublin intercounty goalkeeper Conor Dooley.
While admitting that Ireland were deserving of their historic victory during the recent game in the United States, Cruden also made some ominous soundings about the renewed resolve within the New Zealand camp to avenge that result.
“We’re still hurting from a couple of weeks ago. We’ve got a pretty motivated bunch of guys training really well this week. We’ll finish it off with our captain’s run today. Then get excited by the massive challenge we know we have in front of us tomorrow against Ireland,” he said.
Community initiative
Both New Zealand Rugby and Dublin GAA are sponsored by AIG, and the teams were brought together as part of the insurers' new "Heroes" community initiative for the development of future leaders.
During a question and answer session with the local children, the players were asked about performing under pressure, the origins of the haka, and the diet of a professional athlete.
“I eat Weetabix, milk, fish and plenty of protein,” said New Zealand hooker Codie Taylor. “And sometimes we go to McDonald’s,” he added, to the general relief of the young audience.
Asked about his expectations for tomorrow, winger Waisake Naholo was forced to disappoint the partisan home crowd.
“It’ll be tough, but hopefully we’ll win.”
