Skipper Best lauds ‘fantastic’ Stockdale while

Best added: “Jacob’s a fantastic player and he got his opportunity. It was a really well-worked move, Bundee Aki put him into a bit of space. I was outside him, probably not in as much space, and he put it over the top.

“He doesn’t necessarily look the fastest until you try to keep up with him, that big long stride. The ball bounced his way but I do think you make your own luck with those bounces.

“He’s in the right place at the right time and it was very important for us. We knew we probably needed to score a try in the second half to win that game.”

Best got a huge reception when substituted in the second half, the reaction from Irish fans coming after he was criticised in some corners for his performance against Argentina seven days earlier.

“Yeah, look. I thought it was for Tadhg (Furlong),” he laughed.

“When you’re a hooker you judge it by the lineout, rightly or wrongly. I felt rusty in there last week and there was a lot of pressure.

“For me, it was trying to block that out and do what I do well which is trying to work hard.

“If you ask that from everyone in the team then usually you get a good team performance.”

In a surprise to nobody who has ever spent any amount of time with the man, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt does not believe that Saturday’s win against the world number one make his side favourites for the World Cup next year.

“They have been the world number one team for nine years, and continue to be the world number one team,” he said.” We were at home, and they were coming off a long series of games where they have travelled around the world a number of times.”

Meanwhile, Ben Smith’s broken demeanour told its own story. Standing to his right, a battered and bruised Sam Whitelock attempted to make sense of it all.

This group of All Blacks players are a proud bunch, yet one thing that must be said is how gracious they were in defeat.

From their head coach down, however, there were no excuses, no blaming of the referee. Just simply putting their hands up and admitting that they were beaten by the better team.

The Kiwi’s humility can often spill over into arrogance, but not this time.

Jacob Stockdale’s try was a work of art. Straight out of the Joe Schmidt play-book — as he had done for CJ Stander’s try in the Grand Slam decider in Twickenham — the Ireland maestro kept this latest stunning strike play in cold storage until the time was right to use it again.

Smith won’t want to see a replay of Stockdale’s try, as the winger gets sucked infield and leaves enough space on the left for the prolific Ulster man to weave his magic.

“They worked that pretty well and they all played their part to execute that try,” Smith said.

“It was well done and when they score a try like that you’ve just got to acknowledge the way they do that. As a team, they have got a lot of tricks up their sleeve, but we’ve got to be a bit better with how we defend those tricks and that is an example.

“I suppose they sort of manipulated us a wee bit with bringing myself up and then kicking in behind the space. It’s just well done and, as I said before, they played really well and deserved their win.

“That’s their game, they back themselves. They are a tough team to play because they make the most of their opportunities when they get them.”

Lessons aplenty, but Smith won’t have taken many happy memories away from the Aviva