Soldier Field crackled with atmosphere, vast swathes of the 63,300 bedecked in green watched Ireland dominate vast swathes of the first-half and kept counter-punching in a riotous rollercoaster of a second half, ultimately outscoring the back-to-back world champions and runaway winners of the Rugby Championship by five tries to four, and thus end their world record 18-match sequence of test wins. The Soldier Field crowd erupted in delight at the whistle, cheering the end of a second 100-plus year run of futility in the space of a few days after the city’s Chicago Cubs won their first World Series title in 108 years on Wednesday. "The right side won... we're not going to make any excuses," Hansen declared as the New Zealand news media and callers to talk radio voiced agreement. New Zealand rallied from 30-8 down after 47 minutes to close within four points at 33-29 when center Robbie Henshaw broke their line for Ireland’s fifth and match-winning try in the 76th minute. George Moala, TJ Perenara, Ben Smith and debutant Scott Barrett all bagged tries for New Zealand, but Steve Hansen's back-to-back world champions were finally defeated - for the first time since August 2015. Scott Barrett marked his own debut with New Zealand's fourth try, wrong-footing Kearney, with his brother Beauden converting to cut Ireland's deficit to just four points.
In rugby union, Ireland defeat New Zealand 40–29 in Chicago. The win is Ireland's first ever over the All Blacks in 29 matches and 111 years, and also ends the All Blacks' record-setting Test match winning streak at 18.