Ireland 22 New Zealand 24: It would have seemed a glorious defeat beforehand but certainly not afterwards. Regrets? Ireland will have a truckload, but not about the performance, for they emptied themselves to a man before being undone by a Ryan Crotty try one minute and 24 seconds into overtime to draw the sides level. A twice-taken conversion by Aaron Cruden, from the touchline, put the tin hat on it. As sickening defeats go this was beyond nauseating.
All in all, save for one missed Johnny Sexton penalty, it’s hard to see what more Ireland could have done. This effort made the performance against Australia look like rope-a-dope. The line speed, concentration and work-rate in defence, along with Ireland’s execution of the tackle, was on a different plane altogether, as they pushed up hard on the outside to force the All Blacks inside, where they were met by the forwards or the unstinting Conor Murray-Sexton-Gordon D’Arcy axis.
So too Ireland’s equally purposeful hard straight running in attack and in their clearing out. This reached a phenomenal 98 per cent success rate, with everyone effective but notably the outstanding Jamie Heaslip, who also made 25 tackles, and D’Arcy, who also made a couple of turnovers and shored up the midfield defence in tandem with Sexton.
Mike Ross, 11 tackles, Devin Toner 12 tackles and three turnovers, and Paul O’Connell 13 tackles, a ton of carries and lineout takes and vocal cum inspirational leadership, also contributed hugely, with Ross also benefitting from the rest of the pack staying with the scrums.
The freakish Seán O’Brien, despite being cleverly used as a decoy still, carried a ton of ball, also making 19 tackles. Probing behind this enormous effort was the exceptional Murray, who aside from whipping the ball away, generally kicked well (save for one overlong box kick near the end) and set the ball rolling in so many ways. Tommy Bowe was back to his best and Dave Kearney looked up to the part on his full debut.
As half expected, neither Brian O’Driscoll nor Sexton ultimately lasted 80 minutes, although it almost didn’t matter, but wow, how Rob Kearney played for the duration. That said, and well though Seán Cronin and Kevin McLaughlin did, a key difference was the bench, which ultimately helped steer the All Blacks home.
Perform heroics
Running hard and straight, committing accurately and in numbers to the ruck, Ireland set off at a higher tempo than the All Blacks while keeping their shape through phases. Off a solid scrum, good carrying by Dave Kearney, Healy, Toner, Heaslip and Peter O'Mahony led to Murray busting through Andrew Hore and Wyatt Crockett for the opener. O'Driscoll still had to perform heroics to keep out the All Blacks' ever dangerous Ma'a Nonu, before Murray deftly worked an opening for Healy and then supported a pick-and-go by O'Brien before feeding Best for the hooker to finish similarly.
The crowd were agog, the All Blacks aghast, and with Cronin locating his first two darts after replacing Best, soon the home crowd were in dreamland. As the All Blacks probed, O’Brien made an important tackle to prevent Ben Smith slipping away, Israel Dagg spilled the ball into the arms of Rob Kearney who, amid shades of Noel Mannion in Cardiff in 1989, ran 80 metres for a try. Alas, Sexton’s conversion hit the post.
Though rattled, back came the All Blacks. Ben Smith having freed his hands in the tackle, Cruden, a constant menace, deftly grubbered left-footed for Julien Savea to plunder his 19th try in 20 Tests. Undeterred, Ireland went through 13 phases as Healy smashed through McCaw and a big scrum was rewarded with a Sexton penalty for a 22-7 interval lead.
The All Blacks’ thunderous post-interval intent had Ireland living on their wits a little. O’Brien won a breakdown duel with McCaw, Bowe came up off his wing to wrestle an intercept from Nonu’s long skip pass and, stretched almost to breaking point when Dagg straightened through, Rob Kearney’s tackle held him up enough for Murray to brilliantly save the try.
Soon after, Murray ripped the ball from Dagg in the tackle but Toner blocked Wayne Crockett’s attempt to pressure Sexton’s kick and Cruden trimmed the lead to 22-10. O’Driscoll departed soon after having put his head and body in the way of Brodie Retallick and energetically though Luke Fitzgerald played, the defence did look more porous..
After Bowe was bounced by Savea, Read finally worked his magic to free the winger along the touchline. Ben Smith made another incision and Ben Franks plunged for the line. Cruden converted to make it a one-score game.
Another huge Irish maul might have led to more but Sexton’s chip for the chasing Fitzgerald was a good ploy, as was Murray’s wraparound off a scrum and chip ahead for Bowe. From that lineout drive came the shot at glory. There’ll be laments over Sexton’s missed penalty but Ireland didn’t stop playing.
Even then, they were within 27 seconds, perhaps two or three more recycles, from immortality. Nigel Owens oversaw another classic, refusing to reset any of the 11 scrums, but penalising Jack McGrath for going off his feet was a tough call, and so cue another dramatic, overtime finish under Owens’ watch.
Premature charge
Owens checked with the TMO to see if either Cruden's long pass to Dane Coles, or his offload to Ryan Crotty, were forward. For Fitzgerald to lead the premature charge on Cruden's initially wayward touchline conversion – Ireland having been warned at his previous conversion – wasn't, as Joe Schmidt admitted, the smartest move.
In truth though, the retaken conversion, inevitably nailed, mattered far more to the New Zealand than to Ireland. Noting that Ireland had never beaten New Zealand “in 108 years of trying”, Schmidt added: “there’s been a draw before and we didn’t want to do what had done before.”
Indeed, before the conversion, even a draw did feel like a devastating defeat.
