There are some rugby fans around the world who may think that due to New Zealand's status as the undisputed world's best team, that their rugby media are a bit dismissive of other countries. There are times when Irish rugby hasn't received a whole lot of respect from some sections of the southern hemisphere.
This appears to be changing. Ireland's recent success has lead to an article appearing on Stuff.co.nz entitled "Will Ireland beat the All Blacks at the 2015 Rugby World Cup?", and it's not satirical.
Two data analytics used a variety of statistics and key factors to analyse what the chances of Ireland beating New Zealand at the World Cup. Factors like historical match-ups, performance trends, average point difference across the past ten matches against other teams, and recent narrow misses against New Zealand.
For those who love statistics, the article is basically porn. For the rest of us, the fact the study exists - combined with the comments below that include "Beware the (luck??) of the Irish I say - they're dangerous and definitely have the goods to beat the AB's." show that the New Zealand public are more aware of Ireland after back-to-back Six Nations titles, as well as running them very close twice in our last three games against them (completely excluding the middle game - that doesn't exist anymore).
It's a fascinating read either way and well worth checking out their conclusions, and -spoiler alert- they rate Ireland's chances as between 25 and 35%.
[Stuff]
See Also: New Zealand Journalist Pens 600 Word Ode To Hurling
Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
