Andy Farrell: The lads are gutted, we're all gutted after New Zealand loss

GUTTED: Everyone was gutted following the loss to New Zealand says Ireland head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell bemoaned his team’s error count and lack of accuracy as Ireland were beaten 23-13 by New Zealand on Friday night to end a 19-Test winning run at Aviva Stadium.

This eagerly-anticipated rematch of two of international rugby’s greatest rivals of the past decade following an epic World Cup quarter-final in Paris 13 months ago, and which the All Blacks edged 28-24, failed to live up to the billing in Dublin as first-year head coach Scott Robertson relied on the goal-kicking of fly-half Damian McKenzie to see them home with 18 points from six penalties before a Will Jordan try on 68 minutes put the tourists out of sight.

It was a first win for the Kiwis at Aviva Stadium since November 2016 when they exacted a brutal revenge for their historic first loss to Ireland two weeks previously in Chicago and though this was not as cynical and blunt-forced as that winning performance, it was a clinical display from a side twice beaten on home soil by Andy Farrell’s men in the summer of 2022.

Josh van der Flier had wiped out a 9-6 half-time lead for the All Blacks after McKenzie out-kicked opposite number Jack Crowley by three penalties to two before the flanker’s 43rd minute converted try pushing Ireland into a 13-9 lead.

But Ireland’s indiscipline that followed allowed McKenzie to kick three unanswered penalties before full-back Jordan’s game-killing try.

“Disappointed,” Farrell said. “It's easily summed up with the mood of the dressing room. Sombre, as you would expect. The lads are gutted. We're all gutted.

“I thought we'd prepped well, trained well, everyone was excited about the game. We didn't manage to put our game out on the field. Obviously the opposition have a big say in that.

“We compounded too many errors, almost suppressed ourselves a little bit at times. The accuracy wasn't what was needed to win a big Test match.”

The Ireland boss refused to look beyond his own side’s below-par performance when asked whether he was satisfied with referee Nic Berry’s officiating. Ireland conceded 13 penalties to New Zealand’s five, although the All Blacks lost centre Jordie Barrett to a yellow card just before half-time for a high hit on Garry Ringrose.

“We'll get a few answers in regard to clarification over a few of them,” Farrell said in reference to the penalty count.

“It doesn't really matter whether it was wrong or right, we still shouldn't have suppressed ourselves. It's not right to try and be desperate, chasing your tail when you've made an error, whether it be a penalty or a dropped ball.

“You compound that error with another error and all of a sudden territory is gone, points come off the back of that. We did that a number of times.

“We need to fix up our mentality as far as that's concerned. Get back to neutral. We need to get the ball back, in the way that we want it.

“We became a little bit too desperate. On the back of that, the energy or the accuracy wasn’t what was needed.“

Farrell added: “There's no excuses for us. You can talk about all sorts of stuff, rustiness, game-time, there's no excuse. It is what it is. The opposition, long story short, deserved to win.”