Talking points: Sobering start to tour as injuries mount for Ireland

The interval stats laid out a timely warning of what will happen over the next few weeks if Ireland are off the mark

TJ Perenara of the Maori All Blacks celebrates a turnover.

Horror show in Hamilton 

Well, that was fairly sobering. Any notion of getting a boost ahead of the opening Test against the All Blacks on Saturday was gone by half-time. By then it was a damage-limitation exercise. Ireland might have won the second half 7-0 but it was still error-strewn and unconvincing. It was better than the opening half, but that wasn’t hard.