Unforgettable Irish performance leaves us hard-pressed to think of any better

Ireland 29 New Zealand 20

The World Cup can wait. If there ever has been a better one-off Irish performance, it’s hard to think of one. Maybe the St Patrick’s Day Grand Slam coronation, not least as there was a trophy at stake. But this was probably the most complete and the most compelling of the three wins over the almighty All Blacks.

This one was all founded on a rock solid set-piece, with Ireland’s line-out homework applying pressure on the New Zealand throw, and, save for one glaring error, a generally outstanding defence. Ireland won the majority of the collisions on both sides of the ball and kept their width in defence sufficiently to restrict the All Blacks to just one crosskick, normally one of their go-to ploys. That said, kicks in behind led to one try and another disallowed one.

The All Blacks were clearly rattled by the unrelenting pressure and intensity Ireland brought to the party, a prime example being the three handling errors in the third quarter which contributed to Ireland turning a 10-5 interval deficit into a 20-10 lead.

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Leinster have led the way, looking superbly primed from the opening game of the season, but credit to all the provinces as well, for this is a supremely fit Irish team. Even when the All Blacks are taking something of a battering, no-one is ever really sure of victory until the lights are turned off and the stadium locked up.

But whereas they scored four tries in the last quarter against both Wales and Italy in the last fortnight, here they were restricted to just three points. That said, they’d have gone in front entering the last ten minutes but for Rieko Ioane’s short pass to his brother Akira being judged forward.

Had the All Blacks somehow contrived another act of Houdiniesque escapology ala 2013, then undoubtedly the failure to translate three first-half sieges on the their line into points would have been more closely re-examined.

Yet this was a brilliant performance, by any yardstick, across the board, so much so that it’s pretty futile trying to pick out individuals. Caelan Doris was a deserving player of the match for a bravura 80 minutes, capped off by a wonderfully taken try, but it could have gone to many of his teammates.

The emergence of Doris and Rónan Kelleher, who really came of age with a display which confirmed he is a proper, modern Test match frontrower, and Andrew Porter’s return to loosehead has had a transformative effect on this pack. Porter put in a 76 minute shift and Jack Conan’s impact and presence has gone to another level.

Garry Ringrose had an immense game, his best in some time, and it has to be said the three Kiwi-born players in the starting team can have left no one in any doubt as to their total commitment to Ireland.

James Lowe had the game of his life against the nation of his birth, Bundee Aki was a constant source of go-forward ball and added to that long pass for Lowe's try with some deft-no look offloads for the Johnny Sexton wraparound.

The All Blacks can only be privately amazed at their furthering development in the Irish system, especially Jamison Gibson-Park, whose sharp service and decision-making provided the tempo for this performance.

Ian Foster couldn’t have been more generous in his praise of Ireland’s display and, to his credit, when asked to discuss the three Kiwis in Ireland’s side said: “I only saw three Irishmen.”

Ireland threw down the gauntlet in the very first phase of the game, passing crisply, shifting the point of contact, winning the collisions, showing plenty of animation and earning the right to go wide to Andrew Conway. The crowd was immediately engaged and, like the team, never let up from then onwards.

If that was a statement of intent, so too was the fast line speed by Doris and Tadhg Furlong which forced a spillage by Ardie Savea.

Crucially, as in 2013, Chicago and in 2018, but not in the quarter-final in Tokyo, Ireland won the early moments, notably when Lowe tackled Will Jordan after he latched onto Beauden Barrett’s perfect cross kick before Conway and Ringrose combined to stop Jordan Barrett at full tilt.

Yet again it was clearly a tactic to rough up Johnny Sexton but unlike in the All Blacks’ revenge mission here two weeks after Chicago, this time the officials were quick to sinbin Codie Taylor for catching the Irish out-half on the head with a swinging arm.

On top of this, Ireland drew first blood when the first of innumerable sieges on the All Blacks earned a penalty advantage and playing with house money Gibson-Park and Sexton pulled the trigger for Aki and the excellent Hugo Keenan to give Lowe a finish in the corner.

In one of several echoes of Chicago, three times in the first half Ireland eschewed three-pointers by instead opting for the corner in pursuit of five or seven-pointers.

Had Ireland lost there would have been some questioning of the tactic, especially so when doing so a third time in the last minute if the first-half. This rarely affords a second chance to maintain the attack and give the opposition a mental lift when it doesn’t come off.

Ultimately, in a reprise of his debut in Chicago, Joey Carbery steered the ship home with three penalties, including one from half-way, the last of them in the 79th minute after Tadhg Beirne had latched over the ball even meaning they and the crowd could actually enjoy the last minute in the secure knowledge of victory.

No one who was there will ever forget it.

Scoring sequence: 14 mins Lowe try 5-0; 19 mins J Barrett pen 5-3; 32 mins Taylor try, J Barrett con 5-10; (half-time 5-10); 44 mins Kelleher try 10-10; 51 mins Doris try, Sexton 17-10; 57 mins Sexton pen 20-10; 62 mins Jordan try, J Barrett con 20-17;

66 mins Carbery pen 23-17; 70 mins J Barrett pen 23-20; 74 mins Carbery pen 26-17.

Ireland: H Keenan (Leinster); A Conway (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster/UCD), B Aki (Connacht), J Lowe (Leinster); J Sexton (Leinster, capt), Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster/UCD), R Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne), T Furlong (Leinster); I Henderson (Ulster), J Ryan (Leinster/UCD); C Doris (Leinster), J van der Flier (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster). Replacements: T Beirne (Munster) for Henderson (47 mins), R Herring (Ulster) for Kelleher, P O'Mahony (Munster) for van der Flier (both 59 mins), Finlay Bealham (Connacht) for Furlong, J Carbery (Munster) for Sexton (both 64 mins), Conor Murray (Munster) for Gibson-Park, K Earls (Munster) for Aki (both 72 mins), C Healy (Leinster) for Porter (76 mins).

New Zealand: J Barrett; W Jordan, R Ioane, A Lienert-Brown, S Reece; B Barrett, TJ Perenara; J Moody, C Taylor, N Laulala; S Whitelock, B Retallick; E Blackadder, D Papali'i, A Savea. Replacements: D Coles for Blackadder (20-23 mins) and for Taylor (53 mins), R Mo'unga for B Barrett (22 mins), D Havili for Lienert-Brown (39 mins), K Tu'inukuafe for Moody, T Lomax for Laulala (both 53 mins), A Ioane for Blackadder (61 mins).

Sinbinned: Taylor (13-23 mins).

Referee: Luke Pearce (England)