{"id":322,"date":"2021-11-15T15:08:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=322"},"modified":"2021-11-15T15:08:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T15:08:55","slug":"rugby-fan-biden-wishes-ireland-luck-against-all-blacks-and-celebrates-win-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"Rugby fan Biden wishes Ireland luck against All Blacks \u2013 and celebrates win – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

President, who has said he played at law school, sends letter before momentous game in Dublin and calls team and Irish leader after
First published on Sat 13 Nov 2021 15.02 EST
Joe Biden wished the Ireland rugby team luck in their game against mighty New Zealand on Saturday, saying in a letter<\/a>: \u201cGo spread the faith. I\u2019ll be cheering for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the game in Dublin, the All Blacks had this autumn heavily beaten Wales and Italy and thrashed the USA by no less than 104-14<\/a>.
But Ireland went on to beat New Zealand for only the third time in more than a century, 29-20 at a packed Aviva Stadium<\/a>.
Their day grew more celebratory from there. On Saturday evening, Irish Rugby tweeted<\/a> a picture from the team hotel, in which a phone was held up to cheering players and coaches.
The caption said: \u201cIncredible to have @POTUS [the acronym for \u2018president of the United States\u2019] address the team after today\u2019s win over the All Blacks!\u201d
The White House confirmed the call, which it said Biden made with \u201cmembers of his family\u201d, and the letter written to \u201cTeam Ireland\u201d.
In the political realm, a spokesman for the Taoiseach, Miche\u00e1l Martin, told<\/a> reporters Biden called him too, saying<\/a>, \u201cWell done, I\u2019m delighted for you\u201d and discussing his own experiences playing American football in college.
In fact, Biden\u2019s links to and liking for rugby union are well known, not least in light of previous interactions with Ireland and New Zealand.
\ud83d\udccd Ireland Team Hotel<\/p>\n

Incredible to have @POTUS<\/a> address the team after today\u2019s win over the @AllBlacks<\/a>! \ud83e\udd1d#TeamOfUs<\/a> #IREvNZL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/aUTkqEYN2a<\/a>
On a visit to Auckland in 2016, as vice-president, he was given a shirt by two All Blacks forwards.
\u201cI played rugby but thank God I didn\u2019t play against these guys,\u201d Biden said<\/a>, before telling the flanker Jerome Kaino he \u201cplayed rugby for one year when I was in law school\u201d, as a full-back.
The White House has not confirmed where and when Biden played rugby. It did not respond to a Guardian request for comment sent on Saturday night.
Earlier this year, however, Zach Levek of the Syracuse Rugby Alumni Association<\/a> told the Rugby Network<\/a> that though Biden graduated from law school at the New York university in 1968, a year before its rugby club was founded, the sport was played there before by students and local enthusiasts alike.
\u201cWe would not be surprised if a tough young man from Scranton was willing to put on the Syracuse orange-and-blue-hooped jersey,\u201d Levek said. \u201cWe fully support President Biden\u2019s statements and proudly recognise him as an SU Rugby alumni.\u201d
Nor is Biden the only president to have played rugby. Bill Clinton played at Oxford, George W Bush at Yale. Other Washington power-players include the late Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, who played for Harvard; James Baker, George HW Bush\u2019s secretary of state, who played at Princeton; and HR McMaster<\/a>, Donald Trump\u2019s second national security adviser, who played at West Point.
Biden\u2019s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, also played as a military cadet.
In Auckland five years ago, Biden mentioned<\/a> following an All Black tour of Ireland in the 1970s, when he was a young Democratic senator from Delaware, during a congressional recess.
\u201cWe packed up,\u201d he said, \u201cand we followed them all through Ireland. There was nothing but carnage left behind. But I am a real fan.\u201d
Ireland failed to beat New Zealand throughout that decade, part of 111 years of futile effort until a pulsating game in Chicago<\/a> later in 2016. Biden congratulated that Irish team, which featured a full-back, Rob Kearney, to whom he is distantly related<\/a> and who has visited the White House<\/a>.
In his letter to the Irish team this week, Biden cited his cousin\u2019s triumph at Soldier Field and said: \u201cSince then, you\u2019ve beaten the All Blacks again in 2018<\/a> and I know that you can do it again this year.
\u201c\u2026 As the Irish blessing says, wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you. My grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan, would always say, \u2018Keep the faith,\u2019 and then my Grandmother Blewitt would add, \u2018No, spread it.\u2019 So go spread the faith. I\u2019ll be cheering for you.\u201d
Biden often celebrates his Irish ancestry<\/a>. Earlier this year, at the White House, he said: \u201cEverything between Ireland and the United States runs deep. Our joys, our sorrows, our passion, our drive, our unrelenting optimism and hope.\u201d
On his father\u2019s side, his ancestry is English<\/a> and French<\/a>. On Saturday, it was not immediately clear if the president had also wished good luck to England, who beat<\/a> Australia at Twickenham, or to the French team picked to play Georgia in Bordeaux on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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President, who has said he played at law school, sends letter before momentous game in Dublin and calls team and Irish leader afterFirst published on Sat 13 Nov 2021 15.02 ESTJoe Biden wished the Ireland rugby team luck in their game against mighty New Zealand on Saturday, saying in a letter: \u201cGo spread the faith. I\u2019ll be cheering for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t