Since when have All Blacks fans been happy about losing and upset about winning?
The vibe I’m getting from supporters in 2016 is that winning is too easy for the All Blacks and losing is the only way to make the game interesting again.
The biggest surprise from the loss to Ireland wasn’t that Jerome Kaino started at lock. It wasn’t that Aaron Smith was so poor in his return to the team. It wasn’t that Jonny Sexton outplayed Beauden Barrett. It wasn’t even the result.
The biggest surprise from the loss in Chicago was so many so-called All Blacks fans were celebrating a loss like a victory.
My middle name’s Patrick, my dad’s middle name is Patrick, my grandad’s name is Patrick but do I feel Irish? Not one little bit.
Sure, Ireland deserve all the credit for the way they played and it was tremendous sporting theatre, but I would rather lose to the Wallabies or the Springboks, or even England rather than the Irish.
It’s not that I like those other teams more, far from it.
It’s the fact I love the history and records that the All Blacks have built up over 113 years and when those hard-fought records fall, it hurts my feelings.
So while I was in the midst of depression about letting Ireland escape from the list of teams to have never beaten the All Blacks, friends were telling me how good it was for the All Blacks to lose to Ireland and media were celebrating the Irish victory and berating anyone who wanted to talk about the below-average All Blacks’ performance.
The mood was so jovial at 11am on Sunday that I reckon I saw more smiles on the faces of All Blacks supporters than I did when they nailed a world record 18th win in a row at Eden Park just weeks earlier.
Winning is boring apparently, even though that’s the aim of the game and the main reason why we love the All Blacks so much.
If you’re one of those "winning is boring" people, would you be happy if Italy beats the All Blacks in Rome this week because "it’s good for the game" and it’s "great for Italian rugby"?
Hell no! So why are we "happy" for Ireland to beat us?
Credit where it’s due, Connor Murray and Sexton were magnificent, the Irish forward pack tore into the All Blacks, and they targeted the usually solid line-out superbly well and deserved their victory.
But the All Blacks made so many errors, both individual and coaching-wise, why are we not talking about that while we congratulate the Irish?
Aaron Smith was awful, Joe Moody was dumb, Julian Savea was poor, Hansen started a flanker in the second row rather than a specialist lock and dropped in-form midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown for no obvious reason.
These are the points that should be discussed rather than clinging onto our Irish ancestry and celebrating an All Blacks defeat like we don’t care if they lose anymore.
It’s often said you learn a lot more from your defeats than your victories, and what I’ve learned from this loss is that New Zealanders don’t like the All Blacks as much as I thought they did.