'Not the greatest decision': Rennie weighs in on Luke Jacobson's yellow card

The All Blacks had the foot on the throttle against Ireland early with a 14-0 lead and were searching for more before a dangerous cleanout by Luke Jacobson turned the momentum at Eden Park.

With Ireland camped on their own goal line and the All Blacks holding a penalty advantage, the openside flanker got a low cleanout wrong, colliding with his opposite Josh van der Flier too high with his shoulder cocked.

The incident was picked up by the TMO, reversing a penalty to the All Blacks with the chance to go up 21-0 begging, while Jacobson was sent to the bin.

Dave Rennie refrained from labelling the clean out a “brain explosion” but conceded that his No.7 got it wrong at a key moment.

“Oh, not a brain explosion,” Rennie told media post-match.

“It’s probably not the greatest decision. I mean, there’s a threat over the ball, and he’s got to try and clean them out. He hasn’t quite got that right, so yeah.

“And obviously we had a penalty. I think score was the score then 14 nil, wasn’t it? So we’re in a position to maybe add to that, and unfortunately, yeah, that happens.

“So it’s look, he’s just got to be technically better in those situations.”

The incident was reviewed by the foul play review committee for a potential red card offence, but the yellow card stood and Jacobson was able to return to the field after 10 minutes.

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell remained coy on the issue, preferring to bypass talk of the decision to not upgrade to a red card.

“There’s incidents all over the field tonight that you could talk about and we’re not able to do that, so I’ll pass on that one,” he said.

Ireland captain Dan Sheehan revealed he protested the call not to send centre Quinn Tupaea to the bin after an attempted one-handed intercept. Tupaea knocked the ball backward with one hand, attempting to catch it with both before it bounced off his head forwards.

“It was tricky at the time to see it. You’re watching the big screen like everyone else. There’s not much I can do,” he said.

“I’m trying to make sure I put the question to the ref at the right times. I felt like I was there in the conversations a good bit. I’m just a player on the pitch. I have to try to highlight these issues. There’s not much I can do other than that.”

In the end Farrell conceded his team was below the standard they strive for, with a host of errors from halfback Jamison Gibson-Park and flyhalf Sam Prendergast contributing to an uncharacteristic performance from Ireland.

“It wasn’t just the wrong side of the result – they won pretty comfortably in the end,” he said.

“I suppose the overriding feeling is we’ve got to use it in the right manner for what’s happening in the next 15 months.

“If you look back on it, some of our best ballplayers [had errors], that’s why I say uncharacteristic really because it’s something you don’t see on a daily basis or on a weekend either. But that’s what big matches do to you and that’s a lesson that’s got to be learned, that’s for sure.”