The former New Zealand captain paid a visit to the province’s UCD training base on Monday.

The towering number eight made 127 Test appearances for New Zealand, 52 of them as captain.

The 24-year-old Sligo man first moved to New Zealand last year.

The All Blacks were still hurting badly this morning after their defeat to England.

New Zealand must appoint a new head coach and captain as the next era begins.

Ronan O’Gara has had an influence on several of the All Blacks players.

New Zealand skipper Kieran Read, prop Joe Moody and South African Pieter-Steph du Toit have all come under fire, and Steve Hansen is not happy.

Steve Hansen’s side fell just short of scoring 100 points in Hamilton.

Australia beat New Zealand 47-26 in the Rugby Championship and All Blacks captain Kieran Read pulled no punches in his assessment.

The 2013 World Rugby Player of the Year will call time on an 11-year All Blacks career.

The All Blacks captain will seek a move to Europe or Japan next year.

The All Blacks captain stressed the importance of physicality against Ireland.

Read says he’s interested in taking his career overseas after next year’s World Cup defence in Japan.

Ronan O’Gara’s team have a big south island derby date on Friday at Wyatt Crockett Stadium.

The number eight will not play under Ronan O’Gara until April at the earliest.

Dane Coles, Sam Whitelock and Aaron Smith also return for New Zealand.

Poite decided that Ken Owens was accidentally offside, and chose not to award a late penalty.

Nine years since he made his All Black debut and took on Munster in Thomond Park, Read is the calm voice guiding New Zealand into a pressure-filled third Test.

The All-Blacks legend also paid tribute to Rieko Ioane for a superb performance.

Rieko Ioane and Sonny Bill Williams have been included in the All Black side.

Captain sets his sights on 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The back row suffered the injury yesterday.

The 31-year-old could follow in the footsteps of former captain Richie McCaw by taking a long-term break before the Rugby World Cup.

The 24-year-old Wexford man put three Kiwis into the dirt on one powerful run.

All Blacks captain Kieran Read reckons Ireland will bring a ‘structured’ approach.

The south islanders were the first Kiwi side to fall in this weekend’s knock-out stage.

A 39-21 win for New Zealand in Auckland this morning.

The back-rower was named World Player of the Year in 2013.

Don’t go feeling sorry for New Zealand just because the heart is about to be ripped out of their double World Cup-winning side.

We pick our ultimate XV from this year’s World Cup final.

Rucks, mauls, scrummaging… that sort of thing.

Read delivered the perfect pop pass for Richie McCaw’s try

The sabbatical is over for the talismanic No 10.

Steve Hansen has selected an experienced starting XV to face England in the first Test on Saturday.

We spoke to Paul O’Connell, Jean de Villiers, Kieran Read and David Wallace about rugby’s top two.

It wasn’t easy, but we’ve selected our best XV from the past year of action.

Steve Hansen picks up coach of the year award.

The world class No. 8 says the All Blacks will be focused on getting even better next year.

The number eight is blessed with an endless array of skills. How do Ireland stop him?