New Zealand - 40 Ireland - 8: Ultimately, it was Ireland's inability to score points as much as the late All Blacks flurry which undid the tourists in Eden Park on Saturday. For all the manifest improvements in many aspects of their play on this tour, the failure to translate this into the only currency that matters, points on the board, wore them down.

As they knew going into this match, Ireland had to clinically maximise their opportunities to put real pressure on the All Blacks. Had they created an opening from one of the occasional set-piece platforms that came their way in the first half, or had Ronan O'Gara landed two kickable penalties, there's no telling what pressure this might have put on the All Blacks.

In an uncanny reprise of the first half in Dunedin a week before, the All Blacks again struggled to find cohesion, spilling a greasy ball repeatedly. Indeed, the scoreline was much the same at half-time, 13-3, as it had been a week before.

Once more the All Blacks' first-half try came out of the blue and illuminated an error-strewn, rhythmless period; Aaron Mauger's feint to pass and acceleration inside Brian O'Driscoll to send Leon McDonald over emulating Andrew Mehrtens' incision a week before.

As was the case in Dunedin, Ireland couldn't penetrate to that extent. In fact they put together less phases than the week before, in part due to Tappe Henning's harsher refereeing at the breakdown and Richard McCaw making a bigger impact than Keith Gleeson.

Furthermore, Ireland's attacking gambits weren't as inclined to apply the same level of continuity, an example being the 12th-minute scrum platform 30 metres out which had O'Gara running right to left with O'Driscoll on his shoulder, whereupon he chipped to touch inside the All Blacks' 22.

The ball was greasy, and part of the gameplan was clearly designed to put the All Blacks under pressure by making them turn, but they defended their lineout easily and it was surprising Ireland showed such a lack of ambition at that point.

The one time they did retain the ball for a spell and stretch the All Blacks defence, by first moving right to Geordan Murphy, when Girvan Dempsey did well to keep the move alive, and then back again, John Hayes couldn't offload and so from the recycle, as he did last week, O'Driscoll settled for a drop goal. This was becoming more and more like Groundhog Day.

Once again O'Gara missed a couple of penalties that would normally be in his compass, but the psychological damage was greater this time simply because it had happened before.

Ireland had been penalised seven times by Henning before he finally penalised the All Blacks after 26 minutes, but O'Gara missed the chance to make it 6-6. It wouldn't have been so bad had it been an awkward kick. O'Gara missed another from about 35 metres in the 39th minute and another long-range one with the last kick of the half.

It was decidedly unfortunate for O'Gara, whose general game has been good in both Tests, but who clearly has a problem with this ball. There is no guarantee at all that any other kicker, David Humphreys included, would have fared better. Yet it was a surprise that Humphreys didn't emerge for the second half. By the time he came in, as Ireland's first replacement, the score was 28-8 and Ireland's goose had long been in the oven.

The fear had always lurked that were the All Blacks to go a couple of scores clear their confidence would rise and the Crusaders' Super 12 running skills would see them pulling away. When McDonald put Caleb Ralph over to make it 18-3 10 minutes into the second half, it compounded Ireland's failure to trouble the scoreboard operator much.

Sure enough the hosts piled on three of their five tries in the final quarter, though in fairness to the Irish they didn't roll over, and the rout one feared didn't quite materialise. Ireland even manufactured a try, thanks in the main to the elusiveness of Murphy in sidestepping Ralph, McCaw and McDonald in the prelude to Gary Longwell's deserved close-range score.

But whatever chance they had of mounting a face-saving mini-comeback was eroded with the sinbinning of Alan Quinlan within a minute of his arrival. It wasn't the cleverest or most distinguished of Test comebacks for Quinlan, and judging by the way Keith Wood cited its importance afterwards, he clearly incurred the wrath of his captain.

A handsome win then, if not a rout. The All Blacks pack were imposing, epitomised by Chris Jack's aggressive display. McDonald was also a class act.

Even allowing for wilting opposition, Doug Howlett's introduction gave the All Blacks a sharper cutting edge, as did the introduction of Byron Kelleher's sniping presence and snappier service.

Ireland's performance wasn't without its pluses. The scrum has been revived, and even when down to seven men they prevented three attempts at a pushover try. The lineout has also improved. There's been a commendable resilience about the team, typified by full back Girvan Dempsey.

But the team was devastated afterwards. One hopes it will be a long while before they have another day like this.

Scoring sequence - 17 mins: Mehrtens pen 3-0; 21: O'Driscoll drop goal 3-3; 24: Mehrtens pen 6-3; 36: McDonald try, Mehrtens con 13-3; (Half-time 13-3); 49: Ralph try 18-3; 60: Mehrtens pen 21-3; 61: Longwell try 21-8; 67: Kelleher try, Mehrtens con 28-8; 77: Holah try 33-8; 79: McDonald try, Mehrtens con 40-8.

NEW ZEALAND: L MacDonald (Canterbury); D Howlett (Auckland), T Umaga (Wellington), A Mauger (Canterbury), C Ralph (Canterbury); A Mehrtens (Canterbury), J Marshall (Canterbury); G Somerville (Canterbury), M Hamett (Canterbury), D Hewett (Canterbury), C Jack (Canterbury), N Maxwell (Canterbury), R Thorne (Canterbury, capt), S Robertson (Canterbury), R McCaw (Canterbury). Replacements: J McDonnell (Otago) for Hewett (66 mins); B Kelleher (Otago) for Marshall (66 mins); D Howlett (Auckland) for Ralph (68 mins); M Holah (Waikato) for McCaw (69 mins); S Maling (Otago) for Holah (83 mins).

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Terenure College and Leinster); G Murphy (Leicester), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College and Leinster), J Kelly (Cork Constitution and Munster), J Bishop (London Irish); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution and Munster), P Stringer (Shannon and Munster); R Corrigan (Leinster and Leinster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon and Munster), G Longwell (Ballymena and Ulster), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College and Leinster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Shannon and Munster), K Gleeson (St Mary's College and Leinster). Replacements: D Humphreys (Dungannon and Ulster) for O'Gara (68 mins); A Quinlan (Shannon and Munster) for Gleeson (69 mins); L Cullen (Blackrock College and Leinster) for O'Kelly (74 mins); P Wallace (Blackrock College and Leinster) for Corrigan (76 mins); S Byrne (Blackrock College and Leinster) for Wood (83 mins). Sinbinned: Quinlan (72-82 mins).

Referee: T Henning (South Africa).

Gerry

Thornley in Auckland