Andrew Saville: Sports commentator discusses start of Grand Slam Tour against Ireland

The All Blacks' Grand Slam Tour is due to start this weekend as they face Ireland in Chicago. 

The last time these two teams met at these grounds, Ireland beat the All Blacks in a historic 40-29 victory. 

Andrew Saville joins Jack Tame to preview the match, and discuss whether or not the All Blacks can take their revenge.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks ab Our sport O.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Andrew Saville is in this morning and big Old weekend
is sports. Let's kick things off with Eden Park. What yeah,
we've got double head ay Keew's in the Kiwi Ferns
at eden Park.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah. Yeah, You've got the All Blacks, the both Kiwi
teams and the Black Caps playing all on the same weekend,
which often happens around October November. I'm actually out at
Kiwi Ferns training as we speak in Newmarket and Auckland.
Beautiful day. Hopefully it's like this tomorrow for the big
double header at eden Park. Looking forward to this. The

(00:48):
Kiwi's Tongue should be at hum Dinger as it always is,
the crowd should be an immense mainly sea of red,
and the Kiwi Ferns are up in the earlier game
against Ozzie so that'll be a good watch as well.
The tongue of some wore men's game last week was

(01:10):
outstanding some More playing very well, and the week before
that the Kiwis I thought they played really well against
some More. These some More and Tongue and teams are
stacked with n RAL superstars these days, which is great
for rugby league. So again looking forward to tomorrow and
what should be a great day for rugby league on
Eden Park.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, so nine am would start. The nine am is
kick off for the All Blacks and I'm obviously gonna
be difficult, beau. They have to wait until Q and
A is over before they tune in to see what's
happening in the rugby.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Of course, why are you laughing?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
But what are you looking for in this test? Yeah,
it's always a tricky one that the Chicago effect is
always a bit always, you know, it's a slightly odd.
And then the start of the Northern Tour.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, it's a bit of a leveler. I remember back
in twenty sixteen, it was it was all eyes on
the All Blacks that did a lot of promo work
during the week and then the game was almost secondary
and it felt like that when they played they were
well beaten by Ireland on that day, the first ever
Irish winning history. So some there's only I think three
or four players returning for the All Blacks in that game,
but but some interesting memories for them. Yeah, look, I

(02:22):
just on this tour, Jack I want to see this
All Black team play with consistency, less clutter, more direction,
more ad lib rugby as well, which we know all
these All Black players are capable of. I just I
just think I get this feeling again this year that
they've been over coached in a lot of pre prescribed

(02:44):
moves and what have you. Let's just see if the
All Blacks can play a bit of unstructured rugby, which
is the Northern Hemisphere teams usually struggle to cope with.
On this tour, I think they're going to have to
to to win these four games in a row. I'm
not entirely subscribing to this theory that the Irish team
are going to be completely underdone. They haven't played together

(03:05):
as a unit since, but a lot of them played
together in the lines under Andy Farrell, who's also the
Irish coach. Yeah, and a lot of them, most of
them have played a heck of a lot of rugby together,
So I'm not entirely sure that is going to affect
them affect them too much. The All Blacks will be
hoping they can ambush them a little bit and steal

(03:26):
a march there, but I don't know. I think the
Irish are far too experienced for that. I'd love to
see the All Blacks just really play with some freedom
and again not only whin tomorrow, but win consistently on
this tour, which we haven't seen under Scott Robertson.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, yeah, exactly now.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I know.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
A few weeks ago, Sev you were very much in
support of the comments made by esteemed Rugby observer and
commentator Jack Tame, who was lamenting the extent to which
box kicks have become the kind of default position of players.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
See fewer box kicks?

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, yeah, I mean, I'll tell you what you know.
We say a lot of things on radio, and you
get a lot of texts on the text machine. Few
things get A few things have connected with New Zealand,
like my comments on box kicks, and I was I
was especially pleased to see today in the New Zealand
here front pastg McCord comments from a steam from another

(04:22):
esteemed Rugby observer and commentator, Sir Richie McCaw, lamenting the
extent to which box kicks have become the default position
in world Rugby. I just you know, I think I
think we can say with some confidence that he was
listening to Saturday mornings on news Talks. Jack has a point.
Jack has a point, So yeah, he.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Would have been he would have had his ear buds
in midway through his one hundred k Saturday Morning want Me,
and he thought, you know what, I totally agree with Jack.
I'm going to make it my intention of my crusade
to try and get rid of too much rugby. Yeah,
too right, So we'll set I mean the Actually, I
I don't know how much kicking we'll see in the morning,

(05:05):
hopefully not too much, but I've the other night I
watched some highlights of the English Premiership, which is four
or five weeks into its season, and I was pleasantly
surprised by the way a lot of the teams are
moving the ball, a lot of young backs they're using
these days, and I think England could be a real
threat as well in a couple of weeks next week
rather because it looks like they've gone away and these

(05:30):
the conditions are still pretty good up there. It's not
totally winter yet. But I was impressed by the way
they move the ball. So we may see that from
the Irish again tomorrow. And just the other quick point, Jake,
I know Nzia has made a big thing this week
of taking the game to America. And yes, I think
the All Blacks make some good money out of these
exhibition games in America against Ireland, against maybe South Africa

(05:52):
in the future. But it is not New Zealand Rugby's
job to foster rugby in America. It's New Zealand Rugby's
job to foster rugby here. I just hope those at
the top aren't forgetting their primary roles after this week.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well Seed, Hey, thanks so much, Sev, enjoy the weekend.
We will catch again soon our Sporto Andrew Seville.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
There for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen
live to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.