Defensive masterclass sees Ireland score another victory over All Blacks
Ireland celebrated their greatest win of the Andy Farrell era so far as they deservedly held on to defeat New Zealand 29-20 in a pulsating Dublin Test match.
The Irish controlled much of Saturday’s frenetic contest against the world’s top-ranked side at a boisterous Aviva Stadium.
A trio of late penalties from Joey Carbery ultimately proved crucial following tries from native Kiwi James Lowe, Ronan Kelleher and Caelan Doris.
New Zealand, who lost influential fly-half Beauden Barrett to injury early on, arrived in the Irish capital in record-breaking form having scored an unprecedented 675 points and 96 tries in winning 12 of 13 fixtures this calendar year.
Although Ian Foster’s men struggled to contain the hosts, they remained within touching distance until the final whistle following scores from Codie Taylor and Will Jordan, while Akira Ioane had a try chalked off.
But they could have few complaints about the end result as Ireland impressively registered only a third win from 33 meetings with their opponents to partially avenge their World Cup quarter-final exit of 2019, which marked the end of Joe Schmidt’s reign.
Ireland’s build up included the disruption of undergoing additional PCR testing on Friday following the false alarm of a potential case of coronavirus for an unnamed player, in addition to a letter of support from United States President Joe Biden, who has Irish ancestry.
The home side met the Haka by taking a collective stride forward before a rendition of The Fields of Athenry broke out among the stadium’s first capacity crowd for a rugby match in almost two years.
Farrell’s men did not look to be unduly affected by the previous day’s Covid-19 episode and began like a team intent on building on last weekend’s impressive demolition of Japan.
Despite requiring a remarkable combined tackle from Garry Ringrose and Andrew Conway to stop Jordie Barrett crossing early on, they deservedly went ahead in the immediate aftermath of Taylor being sin-binned after catching Johnny Sexton’s head with a shoulder.
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Quick ball from right to left culminated in Hugo Keenan teeing up former Maori All Blacks player Lowe – one of three native Kiwis in Ireland’s starting XV – to dive over in the left corner for the second-successive week.
The 15th-minute score increased the noise in the stands but was swiftly tempered by Barrett slotting a penalty to reduce the deficit after Sexton missed the conversion.
Ireland captain Sexton later received on-field treatment for an apparent leg issue before the scoreboard swung in the All Blacks’ favour in an action-packed three minutes.
After Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong had a try disallowed following incessant home pressure, the Kiwis broke and the returning Taylor latched on to Dalton Papalii’s pass to touch down, with Barrett adding the extras to ensure they led at the break.
Ireland continued to pen the visitors back but were lacking the clinical edge head coach Farrell called for at his pre-match press conference.
They improved considerably on that front early in the second period.
Hooker Kelleher bulldozed over to level the scores at 10-10 with his sixth try from only seven international starts.
Sexton struck the posts with his conversion but made no mistake seven minutes later after flanker Doris exploited a gap in the All Blacks defence to charge clear into their 22 and dot down to the delight of the lively home crowd.
Despite Ireland’s prolonged dominance, the three-time world champions refused to roll over.
All Blacks winger Jordan helped bring them to within just three points, chipping over the top and then receiving the ball back from Rieko Ioane to zoom clear and touch down.
Sexton departed gingerly for a head injury assessment 15 minutes from time and replacement Carbery soon kicked a penalty to make it 23-17 during an influential cameo.
New Zealand threatened to steal what would have been an unmerited victory when Akira Ioane dotted down.
But that score was eventually ruled out for a forward pass and they had to settle for just the consolation of another Barrett penalty.
Ireland, who complete their autumn campaign at home to Argentina next weekend, will embark on a three-Test tour of New Zealand next summer and were not to be denied.
A couple more penalties from Carbery guaranteed a seventh-successive win, prompting a deafening noise from the delirious terraces followed by a lap of honour.
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments