New Zealand’s three tries-to-none return does not tell the full story of this pulsating GUINNESS Series showdown, as Ireland were left to rue a series of injuries and missed scoring opportunities in a 21-9 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.
The All Blacks took a sizable step towards avenging their recent loss in Chicago with a second-minute try from centre Malakai Fekitoa via Beauden Barrett’s cross-field kick, immediately putting Ireland on the back foot in this evening’s rematch.
A Jonathan Sexton penalty was cancelled out by a converted Barrett try on the quarter hour, with TMO Jon Mason confirming the grounding despite Sexton’s best efforts to hold up his opposite number. Ireland failed to fully capitalise on an Aaron Smith sin-binning soon after, a lone Paddy Jackson penalty their only response as they trailed 14-6 at half-time.
In some bone-crunching exchanges, Joe Schmidt’s men had an unfortunate run of injuries to contend with. They lost the services of their 10-12 axis – Sexton and Robbie Henshaw – and abrasive carrier CJ Stander, all within the first 22 minutes.
The trio’s young replacements, Jackson (24), Garry Ringrose (21) and Josh van der Flier (23), delivered some big performances in key positions, though. The frenetic and often relentless pace was much to Ringrose and van der Flier’s liking, the Leinster duo punching holes in the visitors’ defence with their intelligent lines of running.
However, Ireland were unable to profit from van der Flier’s second half sorties or a few other gilt-edged opportunities close to the New Zealand whitewash. Barrett came to the Kiwis’ rescue when hauling down Sean O’Brien short of the line in the first half, and the Tullow man lost control of possession in the 49th minute after a clever transfer from a lineout had try written all over it.
Stander was also held up before his departure early in the second quarter, while a kick chase led by Rob Kearney in the second period which led to a loose ball, five metres out, would have resulted in a try if Kearney had connected with the supporting Donnacha Ryan.
Crucially, the clinical edge that was evident in Ireland’s play two weeks ago was missing in this second leg of the GUINNESS Series. Instead, New Zealand had done their homework in defence, scrambling well when they had to, and returning locks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock helped to bring a harder edge up front. In addition, Steve Hansen’s charges were ruthlessly efficient off limited possession (only 28% over the closing 40 minutes).
As Ireland piled forward, with the excellent Tadhg Furlong, Jamie Heaslip and O’Brien their most destructive carriers, New Zealand continued to live on the edge slightly with some of their discipline. Although Fekitoa was sin-binned for a head-high tackle on Simon Zebo, a try continued to elude Ireland and three points from Jackson’s boot was all they could muster.
The gap now down to 14-9 entering the final quarter, the All Blacks showed the class of World champions with two piercing attacks. Israel Dagg and replacement Aaron Cruden almost combined to telling effect on the right wing, Zebo recovering brilliantly to avert the danger.
However, just three minutes later, a couple of superb offloads from Barrett and replacement TJ Perenara unlocked the Irish defence on the opposite flank for Fekitoa to complete his brace and silence the home crowd. Perenara’s final pass looked marginally forward on the replay and while Ireland captain Rory Best did speak with referee Jaco Peyper before the conversion, the try stood and Barrett duly converted to put the All Blacks well and truly out of reach.
Ireland certainly deserved to be closer on the scoreboard given their bigger share of possession (66%) and territory (69%), but their profligacy in scoring range, combined with their failure to fully punish New Zealand’s two yellow cards and 14-penalty tally, will infuriate them in the video review.
On the plus side, as the squad gear up to host Australia in next Saturday’s GUINNESS Series finale, the competition for places continues to rise with the likes of Ringrose and van der Flier looking right at home in this company, along with 24-year-old tighthead Furlong who continues to impress, notably with ball in hand. He knocked over three All Blacks in one memorable carry and also claimed an overthrown lineout one-handed.
Skipper Best, Devin Toner and Heaslip deserve high praise as the talismen of the tireless home pack, Heaslip’s fantastic break and offload almost setting up a first half try for his back row colleague O’Brien before the intervention of man-of-the-match Barrett. Between them, Heaslip (14) and O’Brien (19) made 33 carries, with the former’s tally matched by the ever-industrious van der Flier.
Behind the solid Irish scrum, opportunities were limited for the likes of Zebo and Andrew Trimble out wide, but Ringrose and Jared Payne did little wrong in their first ever game together. Indeed, the latter would have had a consolation try late on had he been able to hold onto Jackson’s chip over the top.
Speaking afterwards, Ireland head coach Schmidt said: “It’s incredibly disappointing (not to finish those opportunities). I think we created enough of them to actually score. Seanie went incredibly close in the first half, Jamie went close in the first half.
“It was frustrating, and then both of them went close in the second half. I think if Seanie holds on to the ball off the back of the lineout, I think he’s going to score. We’d a couple of really good platforms to work from, and we didn’t finish them off, and that’s incredibly frustrating.
“We will learn from this, and to be able to put the All Blacks under as much pressure as we did…you know a lot of people were suggesting that they’d come back with a backlash that would put us out of the game early on, and I thought we fought our way back into the game and it was a true competition, and a true Test match.”
On the injury front, he added: “We’ve got three guys getting head injury assessments – Rob Kearney, CJ Stander and Robbie Henshaw. It looks like Johnny Sexton has a hamstring issue – it’s his other hamstring, not the previously-injured hamstring. We will get an update on that either tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning with a scan, and see whether he’s a chance for next week or not.”
Giving his post-match reaction, scrum half Conor Murray commented: “It’s a bit raw and it (losing key players to injury) does upset a bit of momentum. The lads really stepped up. They fronted up to an All Black defence and a few of the young guys came on and they really helped us.
“All credit to New Zealand. With a side losing players (to yellow cards) like that we hope to take advantage. We tried our best and we were very close to cracking them. We tried really hard to come back into the game. We tried to fight our way back but credit to them for holding us out. It was a tough Test match.”
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