Ireland blown away as Blacks’ blast breaks resistance

THERE was a sharp edge to Declan Kidney’s tone that we don’t often hear after Saturday’s defeat by the All Blacks.

It was more borne out of frustration from a disjointed sloppy performance from his side that allowed the tourists off the hook on a day when they might have been vulnerable against a top quality side.

The New Zealanders fell well short of the high levels they have set for themselves with players who have illuminated the rugby world with their skills, dropping the ball, getting in each other’s way and turning possession over.

And yet they hardly needed to break sweat to win by 19 points. Daniel Carter could afford to have an off day and still coast through the scoreless and manifestly monotonous final half hour.

All week, the Irish management had implored the 81,000 fans at Croke Park to become their 16th man, to get behind the side from the kick-off and cheer them to their first victory over New Zealand. However, when a side is pinned inside its own half for vast swathes of the game, and rarely if ever looks like breaking out, it isn’t easy to reach any great level of enthusiasm.

The coach understood that only too well.

“I will have to look at a lot of the aspects of our game and especially the first 30 minutes,” said Kidney. “We allowed a lot of our energy to be soaked up and spent a lot of time in our own half. I think the foundations for what happened in the second half were laid in the first.”

Well, yes and no. The sides were level (3-3) after 40 minutes and all of Ireland would have settled for level pegging at the break. Had the officials noted an illegal body charge on Brian O’Driscoll at the start of the move that led to the crucial penalty try decision by South African TMO Johan Meuwesen, that is probably how it would have stood.

The seven pointer — and its timing — knocked the stuffing out of the hosts who hardly got out of their own half after the restart and those like David Wallace, who had been everywhere earlier on, gradually faded out of the picture.

New Zealand won without ever clicking into top gear. Could they have been keeping something in the tank for the encounters with Wales and England? They were gracious in victory but you wondered just how sincere man of the match Ali Williams was when he claimed Ireland were “very physical and attacked us from everywhere”.

I didn’t see too much of that with Wallace and, to a lesser extent Luke Fitzgerald, Robert Kearney and Alan Quinlan the only Irishmen seemingly capable of breaching the black defensive wall.

The Irish coach accepted the penalty try decision while also stressing the resultant loss of Tommy Bowe to the bin made their task even more difficult. That blow, to some extent, was softened by Tony Woodcock’s yellow card but Kidney still admitted: “We never got a footing in their half. We have to give credit to New Zealand for that but there were a lot of things we could have done on the day that we didn’t get done.”

NOW Kidney turns his attentions to Saturday’s visit of Argentina, knowing another defeat could well knock Ireland out of the top eight in the IRB rankings and consign the side to yet another difficult Pool in the 2011 World Cup. Scotland, immediately behind in ninth place, fought a great battle against world champions South Africa before going down 14-10 at Murrayfield on Saturday.

“It is like a mini-pool in the 2011 World Cup, next week’s game is crucially important for us, a lot of the guys are bruised and battered right now and it is important to get as many of them back as soon as possible,” said an understandably anxious coach.

Paul O’Connell, is almost certainly ruled out by the leg injury that saw him depart the field midway through the second half and Kidney may have to turn to the 34 year-old Malcolm O’Kelly to plug the gap.

Furthermore, Kidney may well consider bringing the international career of a few of Saturday’s side to an end.

Is there really any point in continuing with Girvan Dempsey at full-back? I have grown tired of hearing how reliable he is. Sure, he has a decent pair of hands and can hoof the ball into the sky as good as the next man. But as we learned the hard way on Saturday, that is far from enough at this level. Leaving a young, exciting player like Keith Earls on the bench until it was too late for him or anyone else to change things was a mistake.

Ireland were ragged, seemingly without a plan or if they had one, they just didn’t know how to implement it. Williams and his tough guy second-row partner Brad Thorn, a try scorer, ensured that the influence of the two Lions, O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan, was minimised and the Irish scrum was twisted and turned at will.

Ronan O’Gara will be happy to forget this rare off-day, all the more so because on his occasion his esteemed rival Daniel Carter was also not at his best.

Individually and collectively we weren’t at the races. A repeat on Saturday next and the Pumas will skin our hides.

New Zealand scorers: penalty try, Nonu, Thorn try each; Carter 1 pen, 2 cons.

Ireland scorers: O’Gara pen.

NEW ZEALAND: M. Muliaina; J. Rokocoko; C. Smith, M. Monu, S. Sivivatu; D. Carter, J. Cowen; T. Woodcock, K. Mealumu, N. Tialata, B. Thorn, A. Williams, J. Kono, R. So’oialo, R. McCaw capt.

Replacements: J. Afoa for Kaino 46; P. Weepu for Cowen 59; I. Toeava for Smith 63; C. Flynn for Mealamu 65; K. Read for So’olialo 70; S. Donald for Rokocoko 75.

IRELAND: G. Dempsey; T. Bowe, B. O’Driscoll, L. Fitzgerald, R. Kearney; R. O’Gara, T. O’Leary; M. Horan, R. Best, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, P. O’Connell, A. Quinlan, D. Wallace, J. Heaslip.

Replacements: J. Flannery for Best 57; S. Ferris for O’Connell 60; E. Reddan for O’Leary 67; K. Earls for Dempsey 70; P. Wallace for Fitzgerald 74; T. Buckley for Hayes 76; S. Jennings for Wallace 77.

Referee: M. Lawrence (South Africa).