THE FIELD OF DREAMS

The miracle in Chicago might have looked like plain sailing but fact is - prep was a nightmare

- Derek FOLEY

THERE is a tendency to talk of Ireland's 2016 win over the All Blacks as some sort of perfect storm - fly in, train, play, win.

Soldier Field was nothing of the sort. Preparation in Dublin was awful, the one full training session in Chicago was dreadful, nothing was in pattern.

They'd been better prepared for the All Blacks before - this group had botched beating New Zealand two years back, a previous group had missed a last-minute winning conversion at Lansdowne Road, part of 111 years of rinse, repeat, endless rinse, repeat.

Moreover there was reason to be afraid this All Blacks unit were Rugby World Cup champions with seven wins from seven games including a one-sided final.

Part of an 18-game unbeaten run including home and away wins over South Africa, Australia and Argentina in a Rugby Championship where they had only conceded five tries.

And there were Ireland on matchday, in a foreign field, not considered to have picked a first choice XV with Iain Henderson and Sean O'Brien fit but rested, facing a bloodcurdling haka.

Then captain Rory Best recalled: "The seeds were sown in the most unusual of circumstances, as the match was outside world rugby's international window, bolted onto the front of our three Autumn Test series.

"We did not have our usual two week preparation. Instead, we met on Thursday [the week before] and then some players were released back to play for their provinces!

"We met up again on Sunday when we did a bit of a walk through, had another light session on Monday, and then flew to the US that night. Given the time difference, we didn't land till Tuesday, when we did another walk through.

"Then we had Wednesday as our day off. We didn't have our first proper training session until Thursday, before the captain's run on Friday.

"Normally, we would have four or five days of preparation, then a break, then four days training, leading to the game."