A hard one to swallow for this Irish team, to have given themselves and a throbbing Lansdowne Road a real sight of a famous win, only to be beaten fairly and squarely. Regrets, they'll have a few. A pity, but as one punter put it to Keith Wood late on Saturday evening, "still, you gave it a good rattle".
You couldn't be churlish anyway. Everybody who left Lansdowne Road was buzzing after one of the old ground's most epic contests. Ireland had scored more points than ever before against New Zealand and had done what Australia and South Africa could not do in two attempts apiece in the Tri Nations, score three tries against them.
The superbly-worked tries by Kevin Maggs and Denis Hickie were a couple of crackers too. The first, after Shane Horgan's significant early tackle on Lomu, had got the crowd into the game and was testimony to a good scrum, an excellent rumble by Anthony Foley, David Humpheys taking Peter Stringer's pass flat and at speed, a trademark Brian O'Driscoll break, good support play by Eric Miller and Malcolm O'Kelly preventing Norm Maxwell from killing the ball by clearing him away as the excellent Andre Watson played advantage. Then Maggs held his line to score after Humphreys' sublime show, snipe and pass. Game on.
So many played so well, Horgan having the game of his life, Dempsey braveness and assuredness personified again, and Foley, Miller and Keith Wood immense. They were inspired and marshalled by Humphreys, striking the ball sumptuously and playing Andrew Mehrtens off the park - he was "regal, absolutely regal", purred Ollie Campbell. For 40 minutes, they had played so well, scrummaging strongly, going through the phases and clear in their pursuit of scores, with a confidence rarely seen, certainly against such top-flight opposition.
This was a better sporting spectacle than the English game, and Ireland had touched even greater heights, but hadn't managed them with the same consistency and intensity over 80 minutes. Hence, the management and especially the players were palpably not in the mood for a backslappers' ball afterwards.
Helped by Watson's control and feel for the game it was such a wildly fluctuating, high-octane contest that it's well nigh impossible to single out a key turning point; it was more a gradual turning of the screw by single-minded opponents who scarcely had a shred of self-doubt deep down in their mindsets.
Yet if there was one, possibly it came in the immediate aftermath of Hickie's superbly-constructed try just after the break to put Ireland 21-7 ahead. Had Ireland held on to that lead for 10 minutes then who knows? Even these All Blacks might have started to doubt, might have started to panic, while Ireland would have started to really believe.
Instead, New Zealand recycled Mehrtens' clever little restart - and therein lay one of the big differences between the sides. Ireland are going to have to vary their own kick-offs to give themselves closer targets to chase, and become more alert and adept in defending opponents' short, attacking restarts.
Once again, Mehrtens hung his restart above Ireland's "first" forward, David Wallace, who couldn't control his attempted catch under pressure from both Norm Maxwell and Scott Robertson. Only O'Driscoll was alert but the ball eluded him, Richard McCaw made a brilliant pick-up and a few recycles later a hitherto outplayed Mehrtens probed and offloaded for Reuben Thorne to score within two minutes of Hickie's touchdown.
That score sent out a huge message. It said the All Blacks weren't for cracking, that when they really needed to, they could score a try, and it assuredly engendered some doubt in the tiring Irish psyche. You could sense it amongst the crowd.
When it was followed up by Doug Howlett's try just six minutes later, it hammered home the message. In that time Ireland will possibly regret attacking out wide and turning over the ball after O'Driscoll and Wallace had set it up; McCaw snaffling the first ball unopposed, Aaron Mauger hacking the second upfield, and from the ensuing line-out they manufactured Howlet's try. Rather than facilitating the All Blacks with a fast and loose game at this juncture, might they have taken a leaf out of the Irish A's book and kept it tighter?
Even though Ireland still led 21-19 at that juncture and Humphreys made it 24-19 with a sweet drop goal on the run after a wilting Ireland had run out of numbers and options following a couple of recycles, somehow you knew the tide had turned. And Humphreys' drop goal was a sole riposte to a barrage of 33 points.
A whole host of sub-plots accompanied the turnaround. As suspected beforehand, the heavy toll of the last nine weeks began to tell. Wallace and Humphreys, the two main casualties of the English bruiser, wilted. Humphreys didn't lead up the line quite so effectively, as the ankle injury, the curtailed training and the load of the previous nine weeks began to tell. These Blacks only needed the slightest chink and with Shane Horgan gone, Lomu also made more inroads.
Ireland's brilliant accuracy in the basics began to creak. The three successive losses on their own line-out entering the final quarter were an obvious factor in the turnaround (so much for the vulnerable All Black line-out, John Mitchell having made an immediate imprint on this Achilles' heel). It may also have said something about the departure of John Hayes, and his loss as a peerless lifter. Less obvious, but just as influential, were the three turnovers Ireland made in contact.
Suddenly it seemed as if any time an Irish player made a half-break, he did so in not-so-splendid isolation. The third man in was invariably an All Black, who was able to effect a turnover legally. "Still on his feet," became almost an Andre Watson mantra as weary Irish players looked plaintively at him.
By contrast, the men in black foraged in twos or clusters, and usually offloaded before going to ground. You have to wonder if Irish fatigue was a factor here in just not getting the support ruckers to the breakdown. But Warren Gatland, like the players, was not having any of it. "I don't want to repeat myself here, but that's again down to the intensity they play at week in, week out."
A helluva game, it really was.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins - Humphreys pen 3-0; 12 - Maggs try, Humphreys con 10-0; 19 - Humphreys dp gl 13-0; 35 - Jack try, Mehrtens con 13-7; 40 - Humphreys pen 16-7; (half-time 16-7); 42 - Hickie try, Humphreys con 21-7; 44 - Thorne try, Mehrtens con 21-14; 50 - Howlett try, Mehrtens con 21-19; 52 - Humphreys drop goal 24-19; 56 - Mauger try, Mehrtens con 24-26; 62 - Lomu try, Mehrtens con 24-33; 74 - Hewett try, Mehrtens con 24-40; 79 - Miller try, Humphreys con 29-40.
IRELAND: G Dempsey (Terenure College & Leinster); S Horgan (Lansdowne & Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock Coll & Leinster), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's & Leinster); D Humphreys (Dungannon & Ulster), P Stringer (Shannon & Munster); P Clohessy (Young Munster & Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon & Munster), M Galwey (Shannon & Munster), M O'Kelly (St Mary's Coll & Leinster), E Miller (Terenure College & Leinster), A Foley (Shannon & Munster), D Wallace (Garryowen & Munster). Replacements: E Byrne (St Mary's Coll & Leinster) for Hayes (55 mins), G Longwell (Ballymena & Ulster) for Galwey (59), M Mullins (Young Munster & Munster) for Horgan (59 mins).
NEW ZEALAND: L MacDonald (Canterbury); D Howlett (Auckland), T Umaga (Wellington), A Mauger (Canterbury), J Lomu (Wellington); A Mehrtens (Canterbury), B Kelleher (Otago); G Feek (Canterbury), A Oliver (Otago, capt), G Somerville (Canterbury), C Jack (Canterbury), N Maxwell (Canterbury), R Thorne (Canterbury), S Robertson (Canterbury), R McCaw (Canterbury). Replacements: D Hewitt (Canterbury) for Feek (63 mins).
Referee: A Watson (South Africa).
