Ireland rue mistakes as All Blacks win at Eden Park
Ireland's Joe McCarthy comes up against Asafo Aumua of New Zealand. Pic: INPHO/Photosport/Craig Butland
Ireland went to Auckland looking to become the first international side in 32 years to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park, but their hopes of entering the history books were effectively over by half-time after an error-strewn first half.
While Ireland never went away and fought gallantly to the death, the All Blacks never looked like losing and won 40-21. The 19-point win extended their winning run at the Garden of Eden to 53 Tests.
It was a pressure-relieving moment for new coach Dave Rennie, who controversially replaced Scott Robertson earlier in the year but has now won three straight matches to start the Nations Championship stunningly.
For Rennie’s counterpart Andy Farrell it was a missed opportunity, a night of frustration, and their first loss in the Nations Championship after wins against Australia and Japan.
The world-renowned coach didn’t shy away from aiming high and craving a place in history throughout the week, but 13 turnovers in the first half, which allowed the All Blacks to run out to a 28-7 lead, effectively killed off that hope after 40 minutes.
Given an opportunity to attack, the All Blacks took most chances. They ran through the Irish defence, making 14 clean breaks to Ireland’s five. Along the way, Ireland missed 42 tackles.
Making the night all the more frustrating was that some of Ireland’s most experienced and best, including New Zealand-born halfback Jamison Gibson-Park, struggled.
The former Blues and Hurricanes halfback had hoped to make a statement a decade after leaving New Zealand, but the world-class No.9 struggled to pick the ball up cleanly and his passing was even worse.
His halves partner Sam Prendergast had an up-and-down night, with the out-half unable to link up with his teammate Stuart McCloskey in the first half just as Ireland coughed up possession moments after scoring and gifted the All Blacks a converted try in the 35h minute. It proved a pivotal moment in the match.
All Blacks fullback Damian McKenzie, who finished the night at out-half, was named player of the match.
“Tough Test match. Ireland come out of the gates strong, and we knew we had to start well,” McKenzie said.
“The last couple of weeks, we probably haven’t started as best as we wanted, so really happy with the way we started. We knew we had to just keep in our work and it was still grinding that second half.
“The Irish boys are a tough side. We had to work really hard for our points in that second half, but awesome to come away with a tough Test win.
“We had a really good balance between our kick game and our run game. Obviously, we’re pretty keen to be optimistic around the way we want to play.
“I’m loving the way we’re playing as a team. We’re just getting started. Still a lot to go, but awesome with the way we’ve started. The way we’re playing, you can tell we’re having a lot of fun out there.” Ireland captain Dan Sheehan rued another missed opportunity at Eden Park.
The visitors started slow and have now lost their last four Tests against New Zealand.
“We were pumped up to be here, to get the opportunity to play at Eden Park,” the hooker said.
“We had a lot of support here tonight as well, but the All Blacks are a classy outfit, and they’ll punish you if you’re not on your A game.
“Our discipline, I think, let us down today a little bit, but I’m proud of the boys. I’m proud of the season we had. We really targeted this game, but we’ll learn the lessons and go into next season...
“We wanted to test ourselves against the best. We know where we are now, and we know the work we have to do because it’s a big, big year coming up in the lead up to the World Cup. We’re disappointed with that, but I’m proud of the effort of the boys, and we just need to hit the ground running next year, and keep getting better.”
The signs were ominous for Ireland early. Not only were the All Blacks making a dent but it was being felt on the field, with Jimmy O’Brien forced off to undertake a head injury assessment. Even before he was back, his replacement Cieran Frawley was forced off after copping a stray knee from Hugo Keenan.
By the time he was back on, Ireland was down 7-0 after local boy Patrick Tuipulotu had scored. The big lock was put through a gaping hole by his second-row partner Josh Lord and then ran straight over Keenan to score in the 15th minute.
It wasn’t long before Ireland was under more pressure and it showed, with All Blacks captain Ardie Savea running off the back of the scrum to score far too easily.
Ireland was saved from more just before the half-hour mark as All Blacks flanker Luke Jacobson was shown a yellow card for a reckless cleanout on Josh van der Flier just as it looked like the home side were going to score their third try.
Soon after van der Flier got on the ball to win a clean turnover, but the visitors couldn’t make anything of the brilliant clean steal from the 2022 World Rugby player of the year.
A penalty from Jordie Barrett, however, allowed Ireland to get deep inside the All Blacks’ 22 and Jack Conan made no mistake as he split Ethan de Groot and replacement hooker Asafo Aumua by scoring.
But the visitors undid their work immediately after as Ireland were made to pay for trying to play out of their 22. It failed and Farrell’s reaction said it all as the coach yelled “Oh my gosh” as Will Jordan swept on the loose ball and scored. Ruben Love’s third straight conversion gave the All Blacks a 21-7 lead after 35 minutes.
The All Blacks then made Ireland pay for another mistake as Ruben Love peeled off a superb 50-22 after Robert Baloucoune initially did superbly to take a box kick before spilling it as he set off. Seconds later the All Blacks had their fourth converted try as Aumua scored near the posts.
Needing to take something out of the half, Ireland got a golden opportunity to hit back on the stroke of half-time after Tupou Vaa’i infringed. But the All Blacks stopped Ireland’s rolling maul immediately and then turned it over first phase from attack.
The visitors gave themselves a chance shortly after half-time by scoring through Joe McCarthy to cut the margin to 14 points, but any hopes of a comeback were quickly snuffed out as McKenzie scored next to the ruck a moment after Love came close.
A deliberate knockdown from Quinn Tupaea allowed Ireland to kick for the line and Prendergast found the five-metre line with a superb kick. He then sent Keenan over with a beautiful double-pump and cut-out pass, before slotting the conversion from the sideline to give Ireland the slightest bit of hope in the 64th minute to cut the margin to 35-21.
But despite having a series of opportunities to put the All Blacks under some serious pressure, Ireland never really stretched the home side.
Anton Leinert-Brown then put the icing on the cake of a solid performance from the All Blacks by scoring out wide in the 79th minute.
Hugo Keenan, Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey (Bundee Aki) 6-, Jimmy O’Brien (Cieran Crawley 58), Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park (Craig Casey 75), Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier (Sean Jansen 58), Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan (Nick Timoney 58), Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Furlong (Tom Clarkson (60), Dan Sheehan (Ronan Kelleher 68), Tom O’Toole (Jeremy Loughman 68)
: Ronan Kelleher, Jeremy Loughman, Thomas Clarkson, Nick Timoney, Sean Jansen, Craig Casey, Ciaran Frawley, Bundee Aki
: Damian McKenzie, Will Jordan, Quinn Tupaea, Jordie Barrett, Josh Moorby, Ruben Love, Cam Roigard, Ardie Savea (c), Luke Jacobson, Tupou Vaa’i, Patrick Tuipulotu, Josh Lord, Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, Ethan de Groot
: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Anton Segner, Peter Lakai, Cortez Ratima, Anton Lienert-Brown, Caleb Clarke
: Nic Berry
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