Ireland rugby team beat New Zealand for 1st time in 111 yrs

Ireland’s national rugby team registered their first-ever win over New Zealand in 111 years after they defeated the All Blacks 40-29 at Chicago’s Soldier Field. With the win, Ireland also ended New Zealand’s world record of consecutive victories at 18, that began in August 2015. The two teams will next face each other in Dublin on 19th November.

Ireland produced a stunning display to record a first ever win over New Zealand at the 29th attempt and end the All Blacks’ run of 18 straight wins. Tries from Jordi Murphy, CJ Stander and Conor Murray helped the Irish to a 25-8 half-time lead, then Simon Zebo scored his side’s fourth try in the corner.

The world champions fought back to move to within four points but Robbie Henshaw’s late try ensured the victory.

TJ Perenara, Ben Smith and Scott Barrett added to George Mola’s first-half try for the New Zealanders but despite some sustained late pressure, they fell short for the first time in their past 19 encounters with top-tier nations.

The match was the first of four autumn internationals for both sides, played in front of a capacity crowd of 60,000 at Soldier Field in Chicago, a venue chosen in an attempt to increase the exposure of the sport.

The teams will meet again at the Aviva Stadium in a fortnight after Ireland host Canada next Saturday and Steve Hansen’s side face Italy in Rome on the same day.