Paris Talking Points: Small details, the key moment, Joe Schmidt and three retirements

Our rugby correspondent in the Stade de France picks the bones from a gut-wrenching World Cup exit for Ireland

DISTRAUGHT: Ireland’s Caelan Doris with his family after the game

THE SCORE: IRELAND 24 NEW ZEALAND 28.

Ireland crashed out of the 2023 World Cup at Stade de France on Saturday night as the All Blacks inflicted another quarter-final defeat on their great rivals but if the outcome mimicked 2019’s exit in Tokyo, Andy Farrell’s men this time went out with heads held high, beaten narrowly in an all-time classic encounter.