New Zealand 21 Ireland 11:THE RESEMBLANCES between the rain-lashed events of the Westpac Stadium and those of Hamilton and Auckland two years ago were so uncannily similar that this almost felt like Groundhog Day. Then Ireland had lost by 11 and 10 points and here, once again, they went toe to toe with a slightly undercooked All Blacks before coming up 10 points short.
Once again, entering the last quarter the match was finely balanced and once again a key moment or two saw the chance to make history slip away as - with grim predictability - history repeated itself. Once again, as in 1973, 1976, 1982 and 2001 and twice in 2006 (to name but six) a clutch of Irishmen will have come away ruing one that got away.
If these Irish players have begun to think the green jersey has become a little cursed in the season that seems to never end, you could hardly blame them. A season that has yielded mainly disappointment - apart from wins over Italy (twice), Scotland at home, Namibia and Georgia - has now brought a seventh defeat.
Once again you could not fault so much honesty of effort, so much willingness to put bodies on the line on a night you would not have put the cat out, as Stradey, Musgrave Park, Ravenhill and countless other venues were revisited in this sodden season.
The arm-wrestling between the packs was unrelenting, and Brian O'Driscoll was as willing to get down and dirty as any of the piano-shifters toiling away up front. And despite his exertions, he and the other backs finished the game as drenched, shivering wrecks.
Paul O'Connell carried on where he left off in the Heineken Cup with a remarkable tackle count of 20, muscular close-in work and ever-willing ball carries.
David Wallace has rarely played better and seemed to be everywhere, mixing bear-hugging tackles on the likes of Ma'a Nonu in the wider spaces with plenty of grunt close in and carries he had no right to make. He even beat Richie McCaw once, which on this night was worth crowing about.
Denis Leamy's industry and tackle count were, as ever, top notch in a contest that, as one suspected, would have been made for Alan Quinlan. It certainly wasn't made for the outside backs, yet Robert Kearney oozed confidence.
The maul went well, and given some ballast off the bench by Tony Buckley and Rory Best, finished pounding away at the All Blacks' line. That said a multitude about this lot.
With a bit more precision, discipline and ambition they could have won. Mistakes let a nervy All Blacks side into the game. With Rodney So'oialo the destroyer in chief, Ireland's lineout buckled badly, coughing up six throws. Jerry Flannery was given the shepherd's hook after four lost throws, but another couple went awry from Best after his introduction.
One could not understand why Ireland opted for so many long throws rather than the safety of Donncha O'Callaghan at the front; a case in point was the throw to the tail by Best soon after his introduction, with the game finely balanced at 11-all, which a fully extended Jamie Heaslip could not hold onto.
That led to the territorial pressure from which Marcus Horan unforgivably and unaccountably tried to smash his forearm into a prone McCaw. The All Black flanker could almost have been wearing a green number nine given his angle into the ruck but Chris White was giving Ireland a scrum anyway and Horan had no business doing what he did.
It would have been interesting to see how the All Blacks would have reacted had the scores stayed level a while longer. Who knows whether that three-pointer gave Dan Carter the freedom to suddenly unveil his trademark step off his left foot inside Roan O'Gara and into a gap David Wallace could not fill? In any event, a couple of phases later, Nonu scored the decisive try off John Schwalger's offload.
One of the lost lineouts had also led to the rumbles that culminated in Carter drawing the sides level on 33 minutes after Paddy Wallace - in the visionary high point of Ireland's performance - had restored the lead by seeing and exploiting space on the blindside.
O'Driscoll held himself accountable for the All Blacks' first try when admitting he should not have drifted as Conrad Smith beat him on the inside, Ultimately though that opening try showed the All Blacks' willingness to give the ball some air, which Ireland never tried to do.
Television pictures can never convey the true horror of the conditions, but whereas the All Blacks made two telling and decisive line breaks from distance to score their tries, and Ireland ultimately created little or nothing outside the one try, O'Driscoll did not regret the lack of ambition or variety, citing the first-minute turnover off a pass to Paddy Wallace as evidence the ball was "an absolute liability at times".
Even so, Ireland looked much more potent when belatedly introducing Peter Stringer and putting some air on the ball.
Whether the All Blacks were there for the taking is debateable. Their setpieces were solid and they won the collisions around the fringes, especially in the first half. But, not surprisingly, you had the distinct impression the exodus of so many frontliners, scarcely a week's preparation, confusion aplenty over rule changes and, most of all, the pall of depression hanging over New Zealand rugby, left them nervous and vulnerable.
They certainly were not on a par with the confident outfit of two years ago, even though in 2006 a team containing Carter had been sent to Argentina. Even Carter looks a pale shadow of himself at a time when, ironically, his monetary value is about to be cashed in like never before. He took the guts of an hour to find his range here.
But McCaw was sensational, setting the tone with that early hit on Paddy Wallace and even flipping O'Connell in the tackle. He ran back restarts, somehow seemed to be at the fulcrum of every close-in drive, and led the charge through the middle of the Irish rucks.
They'd be lost without him, this game being a case in point.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 9 mins: O'Gara pen 0-3; 16: Sivivatu try 5-3; 20: P Wallace try 5-8; 33: Carter pen 8-8 (half-time 8-8); 43: O'Gara pen 8-11; 46: Carter pen 11-11; 60: Carter pen 14-11; 65: Nonu try 21-11.
NEW ZEALAND: M Muliaina (Waikato); A Tuitavake (Auckland), C Smith (Wellington), M Nonu (Wellington), S Sivivatu (Waikato); D Carter (Canterbury), A Ellis (Canterbury); N Tialata (Wellington), A Hore (Wellington), J Afoa (Auckland); B Thorn (Canterbury), A Williams (Canterbury); R So'oialo (Wellington), R McCaw (Canterbury, capt), J Kaino (Auckland). Replacements: J Schwalger (Wellington) for Afoa (33 mins), A Thomson (Otago) for So'oialo (43-49 mins) and for Kaino (75 mins), L MacDonald (Canterbury) for Tuitavake (50 mins), K Mealamu (Auckland) for Hore (55 mins).
IRELAND: R Kearney (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), P Wallace (Ulster), Bowe (Ulster); R O'Gara (Munster), E Reddan (Wasps); M Horan (Munster), J Flannery (Munster), J Hayes (Munster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster); D Leamy (Munster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: R Best (Ulster) for Flannery (52 mins), T Buckley (Munster) for Horan (62 mins), S Jennings (Leinster) for Heaslip, P Stringer (Munster) for Reddan (both 72 mins), G Murphy (Leicester) for Kearney (75 mins).
Referee: Chris White (England).
