Former Ireland number eight Jamie Heaslip has said that Ireland will take huge confidence from their 16-9 win over New Zealand on Saturday into next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Ireland held a New Zealand side that averaged 37 points a game in the Rugby Championship to just nine points in a masterclass at the Aviva Stadium.
Heaslip, who was apart of the first Irish squad that beat the All Blacks in Chicago in 2016, said that the win could act as big building block in preparation for next year’s World Cup in Japan.
“This is everything. This is everything,” Heaslip said on Channel 4 in the immediate aftermath of the game.
“We got the monkey off the back in 2016 and the confidence this gives. We settled the debate this year. This was the best of the northern hemisphere and the best of the southern hemisphere and Ireland have done it convincingly.
“They did let a New Zealand side, which scores on average 5.5 tries per game in the Rugby Championship, score a try. That is huge and goes a long way towards the potential in this side in 11 months time in the World Cup.
Heaslip, who won a Grand Slam with Ireland in 2009 and two Six Nations titles in both 2014 and 2015, said that this current group of Irish players could be the best squad that the union has ever had and added that it’s a credit to Joe Schmidt just how easily the likes of Josh van der Flier and Jordi Mruphy can slot in.
“This is probably the best squad that Ireland have ever had. You see Robbie Henshaw in the crowd, Conor Murray earlier, Dan Leavy. Those kind of players are not involved in the side right now but they’re in the squad.
“This just shows the systems that Joe Schmidt has in place in terms of players slotting in – we saw [Will] Addison last week, we saw Josh van der Flier getting the call and slotting right in, we saw Jordi Murphy come into the squad and comes off the bench and throws himself right into it.
“All of it. It just shows you the depth that we have and for this group they have done that now, they beaten the number one side in the world, who are back-to-back world cup champions and this helps with that confidence. It just shows the rest of the world right now that anyone can do it.”
