Ireland narrowly beaten by All Blacks

New Zealand 15 Ireland 6

Ronan O’Gara missed three penalties as Ireland came agonisingly close to recording their first ever win against the mighty All Blacks.

The Irish stand-off finished the game on the bench and was left to reflect on a hat-trick of failures which allowed an unconvincing New Zealand to cling onto victory in Dunedin.

Winger Doug Howlett grabbed the opening try of the game for the home side six minutes before the interval but Ireland refused to buckle and only Leon MacDonald’s late effort after a powerful burst from replacement Jonah Lomu ensure the expected home win.

It was tough luck on the Irish, who showed plenty of fire in the opening stages, forcing the All Blacks into a series of uncharacteristic mistakes which prevented them gaining any momentum.

Brian O’Driscoll was his usual mercurial self, hacking on his own grubber kick and then hauling Caleb Ralph to the ground after Leon MacDonald had failed to gather at the first attempt.

The Irish superstar then put the visitors in front with a snap drop-goal, which might have been seen as poor reward for a concerted assault on the New Zealand line which failed to bring a try despite seven successive phases of possession.

Andrew Mehrtens quickly drew the All Blacks level with his first penalty chance but the expected onslaught failed to materialise as Ireland, led magnificently by Keith Wood, met their much vaunted opponents with a ferocious tackling stint.

Aaron Mauger broke 30 metres downfield but MacDonald knocked on as he tried to take what would have been a scoring pass and then Scott Robertson was smashed into the ground by Keith Gleeson as he attempted to charge over halfway.

John Kelly was providing admirable support for O’Driscoll, twice making half breaks which had the All Blacks scrambling back in defence.

The home scrum was looking vulnerable, although so was the Irish line-out as both sides failed to make the most of their possession.

O’Driscoll touched down but referee Joel Jutge had long since blown for a knock-on by Justin Bishop and New Zealand made the visitors pay by immediately sweeping down to the other end to grab the opening try.

Mehrtens spotted a hole in the Irish defensive line at a scrum 40 metres from the visitors’ line and sprinted round the blind-side to take Justin Marshall’s pass.

Ireland were exposed and Howlett appeared on his stand-off’s shoulder to take the final pass and dart home unopposed.

Mehrtens landed the conversion but O’Gara missed a stoppage-time chance to reduce the arrears when he floated a 40 metre penalty attempt wide to the left.

Hopes among the home support that the half-time interval would shake the lethargy out of their team quickly evaporated as Ireland continued to force the pace.

O’Driscoll’s huge crossfield kick almost brought a try but with limited space Leicester winger Geordan Murphy leapt to collect but could only place the ball down on the in-goal touchline and New Zealand escaped.

O’Gara let the All Blacks off the hook again a minute later when he missed another simple penalty chance from 35 metres.

Simon Easterby came up with a timely interception inside his own 22 after Ralph had galloped over halfway to set up another attacking chance for New Zealand, whose good work in the forwards was continuously being undermined by basic errors in midfield.

O’Gara finally found his range from 20 metres after a Kiwi hand had appeared in a ruck and All Black coach John Mitchell immediately replaced the ineffective Tana Umaga with Bristol-bound centre Daryl Gibson.

The next scoring chance again went to O’Gara and again he blundered, firing a 35-metre penalty wide to continue his personal kicking disaster.

With their fortunes still not improving, Jonah Lomu was thrown on for Howlett although the mighty winger’s immediate impact was not particularly impressive, failing to hold onto the ball as he crumbled under Paul O’Connell’s tackle.

O’Gara made way for David Humphreys with 10 minutes remaining as Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan gambled on his team being given more kickable penalty opportunities.

But they never came, and Lomu came into his own against the tiring visitors’ defenders, blasting to the 22-metre line and sucking the Irish troops under the own posts, allowing MacDonald the space to speed home in the corner to seal New Zealand’s scrappy win.