Guinness has been synonymous with Irish Rugby for some time now.
The long time sponsor of both the Autumn internationals and the PRO14, Guinness has been a big supporter of Irish Rugby and have come up with a range of ads that slickly incorporate a pint of Guinness into the background of images.
https://twitter.com/GuinnessIreland/status/1063046468800528384
Following Ireland’s first ever win over New Zealand in Dublin on Saturday, Guinness Ireland were quick to capitalise on the victory posting a picture of a pint of Guinness accompanied by the caption ‘The Irish love taking down an All Black’.
https://twitter.com/GuinnessIreland/status/1063907128828555265
It was only the second time in Irish Rugby history that an Irish team bested the two-time defending world champion All Blacks and a number of New Zealanders did not take kindly to the lighthearted jab.
Well done, you deserved to win. But be careful not to become 'English'
— Richard McIntyre (@rmcintyre007) November 19, 2018
Congratulations to Ireland rugby, but why do you alienate your NZ customers with such taunting?
— Jacobite1689 🇪🇺 (@jacobite1689) November 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/nzoranmore/status/1064382763036340224
The New Zealand Herald also ran a headline on the ad titled: ‘Rugby: Guinness ad mocking All Blacks after Ireland defeat backfires’.
New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen said last week that this match would decide which team was the best side in world rugby and he added after the game that Ireland were now the favourites heading into next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
“You’ll make them favourites, and if you want to make them favourites, go right ahead,” Hansen said at the post-match press conference.
“What it does do I think, and I said this at the beginning of the week, is that you have the two best sides in the world playing each other so as of now they’re the number one team in the world. I guess they are favourites.”
Hansen added that his side began to force things in the second-half and that they ultimately squandered the chances that they had.
“You start to force things a wee bit when you don’t have to,” added Hansen.
“You saw Rieko [Ioane] make a break off that line-out, the special play that we have there, could have easily just finished that off.
“Beauds has made a break and threw it away, the big fella here [Kieran Read] had a charge down and no one in front of him and we just didn’t take that one.
“That’s just the nature of the game of rugby sometimes. When you don’t take them, and you’re playing a very good rugby side, that comes back to bite you.
“Full credit to Ireland, they took their chances on the night. There’s been nights where we’ve done that and the opposition haven’t. We’ve been in their situation and tonight is their night.”
