New Zealand 66 Ireland 28:This was ugly, albeit not quite as ugly as it looked it might have been at one stage, but still very ugly. Not so much a return to the bad old days as a whole brand new one all to itself, the psychological scars from which would have been even worse were it not for a 14-man effort which saw Ireland respond to a nightmare 38-0 deficit after just 33 minutes to thereafter share four converted tries apiece.
Even so, this already daunting tour just became a whole lot longer.
Ill-discipline, primarily a red card for Jamie Heaslip and mistakes cost them from the off, effectively ending the contest from the 15th minute. Heaslip was sent off by referee Wayne Barnes for, according to the Englishman, deliberate knees to the head, although it wasn’t abundantly clear who the recipient was or, if indeed, he didn’t catch a teammate just as much. The pity is that Ireland were hammering away at the All Blacks line at the time, both Andrew Trimble and Gordon D’Arcy having been held up inches short from making the score 10-7. But instead of game on, it was game over.
Thereafter it was very hard to make definitive judgements on either the collective or individual performances, but there were far too many Irish players who fell off missed tackles in what was the leakiest Irish defensive performance under this regime. New Zealand played with far more desire, physical ballast in what was a particularly embarrassing first-half in the Yarrow Stadium for all those wearing green.
Ireland were already being punished ruthlessly by the time Heaslip was red-carded. A missed touch by Ronan O’Gara had led to Dan Carter’s opening three-points and a knock-on by Sean Cronin and Rob Kearney’s failure to gather Conrad Smith’s kick ahead when sliding onto the ball close to his line led to the local boy’s first try.
Even so, the gaps in the Irish defence were at times alarming, witness the next try by Kieran Read a few phases after the lively Isreal Dagg, whose footwork, pace and combinations with the skilful Corey Jane were a constant menace, beat D’Arcy on the outside and offloaded to Smith.
And their task became utterly thankless when reduced to 13 men for ten minutes when O’Gara was yellow carded for tugging Jane after his own kick ahead. In O’Gara’s absence Ireland conceded a further 21 points through tries by Ben Franks and two by Jimmy Cowan.
An 80 or 90-pointer looked on the cards then, and while tries still came cheaply at times, Ireland’s response was to swing from the hip by going through the phases and offloading freely.
In this regard, Andrew Trimble underlined the improvements in his game, especially his footwork and handling, in the last couple of years as well as plundering yards in contact. Likewise, some of Tony Buckley’s deft offloading defied belief.
The fight back, such as it was, began when Dan Tuohy scored within a minute of his test debut as a replacement for Mick O’Driscoll, the lock picking up and charging through after another good carry by Trimble.
Even so, it was soon 52-7 through tries by Smith, off a Cian Healy knock-on off a wounded duck of a pass from Tomas O’Leary, and their debutant replacement lock Sam Whitelock, who ironically emulated Tuohy’s achievement.
Thereafter, Ireland won the last quarter 21-14 as they kept coming back for more.
Another multi-phase attack off a tapped penalty to the corner, with carries galore from O’Callaghan, Wallace, Healy and D’Arcy, culiminated in O’Driscoll linking with D’Arcy and Buckley, with a deft offload, for O’Driscoll to score.
Tommy Bowe then pounced on a loose pass from Richie McCaw to score under the posts. Admittedly, the edge may have gone off the All Blacks’ game slightly, although they are never known to be anything but ruthless in such scenarios. That said, they roused themselves to score further tries by Neemia Tialata and Whitelock, either side of a score from the ever willing and deserving Gordon D’Arcy after Trimble had been denied a merited try by the TMO.
But, overall, it was still a fairly shocking night in New Plymouth.
Scoring sequence: 7 minsCarter pen 3-0; 11 minsSmith try, Carter con 10-0; 21 minsRead try, Carter con 17-0; 27 minsB Franks try, Carter con 24-0; 30 minsCowan try, Carter con 31-0; 33 minsCowan try, Carter con 38-0; 36 minsTuohy try, O'Gara con 38-7; (half-time 38-7); 47 minsSmith try, Carter con 45-7; 51 mins52-7; 57 mins O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con 52-14; 66 minsTialata try, Weepu con 59-21; 76 minsD'Arcy try, Sexton con 59-28; 77 minsWhitelock try, Weepu con 66-28.
New Zealand:Israel Dagg (Otago Highlanders); Cory Jane (Wellington Hurricanes), Conrad Smith (Wellington Hurricanes), Benson Stanley (Auckland Blues), Joe Rokocoko (Auckland Blues); Daniel Carter (Canterbury Crusaders), Jimmy Cowan (Otago Highlanders); Ben Franks (Canterbury Crusaders), Keven Mealamu (Auckland Blues), Owen Franks (Canterbury Crusaders); Brad Thorn (Canterbury Crusaders), Anthony Boric (Auckland Blues); Jerome Kaino (Auckland Blues), Richie McCaw (Canterbury Crusaders), Kieran Read (Canterbury Crusaders).
Replacements:Victor Vito (Wellington Hurricanes) for Kaino (38 mins), Piri Weepu (Wellignton Hurricanes) for Cowan (half-time), Sam Whitelock (Canterbury Crusaders) for Thorn (50 mins), Neemia Tialata (Wellington Hurricanes) for B Franks (52 mins), Aaron Cruden (Wellington Hurricanes) for Carter (54 mins), Aled de Malmanche (Waikato Cheifs) for Mealamu, Zac Guildford (Canterbury Crusaders) for Jane (both 63 mins), B Franks for O Franks (70 mins).
Ireland:Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster); Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster, capt), Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster); Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster), Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster); Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht), Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster); Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster); John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht), David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster), Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster).
Replacements:Shane Jennings (St.Mary's College/Leinster) for Muldoon (31 mins), Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster) for M O'Driscoll (35 mins), Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster) for O'Leary, Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary's College/Leinster) for O'Gara, Geordan Murphy (Leicester) for Kearney (all 70 mins), John Fogarty (De la Salle Palmerston/Leinster) for Cronin (75 mins), Tom Court (Malone/Ulster) for Healy (78 mins).
Yellow card:O'Gara (24-34 mins).
Red card:Heaslip (15 mins).
Referee:Wayne Barnes (England).