The Māori All Blacks have done enough against Ireland to prove they deserve more opportunities against rugby's tier one nations, coach Clayton McMillan believes.
With two midweek matches against Ireland on their current tour, the Māori All Blacks have impressed, winning the first game and narrowly losing the second, as a young side went toe-to-toe with rugby's second-ranked nation.
A 32-17 victory at Hamilton was followed by Tuesday's narrow 30-24 loss at Wellington, as a newlook Māori All Blacks side made the most of a rare opportunity against a touring side.
The two results add to an impressive recent run for the Māori All Blacks, who've now won eight of their last 10 matches, since losing to the British & Irish Lions in 2017.
But that number doesn't tell the whole story, with the Māori All Blacks' opponents in recent years mainly second-tier sides like USA, Canada, Brazil and Chile, and Pacific nations Fiji and Samoa, who often struggle to field their best players.
Since the start of 2010, the Māori All Blacks have played just six games against sides that could be considered as tier one teams, also beating England and Japan in that time.
And despite the disappointment of defeat to Ireland, McMillan says his side's performance was as evidence they should face stronger opposition on a more regular basis.
"We're disappointed, because we wanted to win two games and thought that would have been great for Māori rugby," McMillan said. "We're continually fighting for our space in a congested international window.
"The opportunity to play tier one nations doesn't come around often. We saw this as a great opportunity to showcase Māori rugby and two wins would have applied a little bit of pressure on people who make decisions to find us more games like this.
"Hopefully, they've seen enough out of a young, but talented squad to keep pushing for that tier one nation opposition."
McMillan also rejected the idea that his side's strong showing came against a weakened Irish side, forced to rotate their test stars before the first and third tests against the All Blacks.
The Māori All Blacks also fielded a newlook side, as some of Super Rugby Pacific's best talent were afforded their first taste of the team environment.
"We just need to play our part," said McMillan. "If we got demo'd over two games, it would have been easy to say 'your level is over there'.
"I think we've showcased over two games that we can compete against the best teams. I don't buy into the rhetoric that we played a team full of young guys - if they've got a green jersey, they're called Ireland.
"They bought them out here with expectations that they wanted to grow their squad and we've got a young squad too - 10 debutants, most of them under the age of about 21.
"This team will get better."
For now, the Māori All Blacks will wait with bated breath, with no further scheduled matches in the 2022 rugby calendar, hoping they've earned the chance to show their wares against some of the world's best.
"I don't think this year," said McMillan. "I'm not too sure beyond what's planned next year, but hopefully, we've done enough to get the decision-makers to start looking early for opposition and something else we can look forward to."
Join us at 7pm Saturday for live updates of the third All Blacks v Ireland test
