Any superlative will do the trick – just pick your favourite. It was truly a most magnificent performance by Ireland, the stuff of legend. All 23 players, not to forget the coaches, deserve every single plaudit, every one a hero.
The man of the match award wasn’t really needed, this was ‘pure team’.
During the week the interviews and comments from the Irish camp were the essence of calmness – clearly there was belief that they could pull it off. It was a win of historical dimensions, and the series win will now be chased.
Maybe those of us who didn’t see this coming will now believe that it can be done, and a similar performance may well see more to be written into those history books.
On the day the final scoreboard could, and indeed should, have shown more points for Ireland.
However, foul play is the only place to start. The red card doled out to New Zealand prop Angus Ta’avoa was absolutely correct, despite some wishing to see it in the accidental category. That is very dangerous thinking.
The so-called tackle was devoid of any technique and both players were sickened by the impact, as were those watching. The incident added to the alarming number of serious head injuries which we are seeing across all of the summer Internationals. Things, most certainly, are not getting any better. It is disturbing.
Earlier, the leaping Leicester Fainga’anuku hurled himself into the air and saw ‘yellow’ for a very late hit on Mack Hansen, who was felled by the New Zealander’s hard shoulder. Jaco Peyper’s case for mitigation from ‘red’ was difficult to follow.
Yes, maybe there was some initial contact to Hansen’s chest, but the forceful brunt of the collision was to his head. Many texts pinged to my inbox saying this was a red card, it’s impossible to disagree.
When Garry Ringrose was tackled off the ball as he waited for Johnny Sexton’s pass a penalty try seemed the simplest decision in the world. It was clear-cut, not one New Zealand player was left to oppose him, and it was just a short sprint to the line.
However, instead of running under the posts, the very experienced referee astonishingly reasoned that there were a couple of players who could have tracked back to catch Ringrose.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Much better officiating was needed here and it was also seven vital points which never reached the scoreboard. If that decision had cost Ireland the match the reaction doesn’t bear thinking about.
A half-time lead of three meagre points, 10-7, bore no reflection of what we had witnessed. There was also a large slice of luck to Beauden Barrett’s seven-pointer as the half came to a close. When his impromptu fly-kick threaded neatly through the eye of a needle, and past the Irish defence, he only had to flop on the ball to score. It could just as easily have been blocked.
That first 40 minutes was frantic, a hard, incident-packed affair. Ireland came out of the blocks at an even higher pace than last week, with Andrew Porter crossing for the first of his two tries in just the third minute.
New Zealand, completely on the back foot, managed to contain the onslaught, and 10 points was not enough to show for Ireland’s level of dominance.
There were errors too. Ringrose threw out another careless attacking pass, fortunately, it went to Barrett who didn’t have the pace to get away from the cover. But, for a nasty moment, it was looking like a carbon copy of last week.
James Ryan gave away a silly lineout penalty, a needless offence, and also got himself sent to the bin. If he had delivered a Tadhg Beirne-like performance, then the whole pack would have been operating at a really exceptional level.
As we have seen, Peyper was central to some very key events in that first half, although he did put down an early marker when penalising Dalton Papalii for going past the breakdown. It was an issue discussed here last week, and it was an important sanction. This area was a lot less than perfect, but nonetheless better than last time.
When New Zealand were reduced to 13 they had also run out of props, and when a scrum was awarded to Ireland, it had to be uncontested. From there the ball was looped to James Lowe who flapped at it, and the chance was gone.
But something went seriously astray here – the law requires the team responsible for causing uncontested scrums, to forfeit another player, hence NZ should only have had 12 on the pitch.
Between them all, the match officials failed to apply the rules correctly, no excuse really. Given that such scrums must have eight from each side packing down, Ireland should have been facing only four New Zealand backs, and, if so, you’d imagine things would have worked out somewhat differently.
When the sin-bin period was over, New Zealand, remarkably, ended up with enough players on the pitch to bring them back up to 15, despite their red card. The officials twigged it, and Ardie Savea was despatched to the sideline.
A massive loss, but it did not have to be him; someone else could have been the fall guy. New Zealand will want to know the officials’ reasoning on this one. It’s complicated enough, for sure, but, at the highest level, these issues must surely be delivered flawlessly.
Andy Farrell will be looking for a repeat performance from Ireland next week. Some tidying up to be done, a friendly, but strong, chat with referee Wayne Barnes about breakdown issues; and, most of all, the passionate commitment to be maintained, which will also be the very least of his worries.
Meanwhile, all of New Zealand will be looking hard into the mirror and pondering why they were beaten, and very comprehensively at that. Head coach, Ian Foster, will need to get his men operating to a higher level next week. He’s bound to be under huge pressure now, and don’t be surprised if, sooner or later, that translates into a change at the top. Joe Schmidt, any takers?
