Fourth win over New Zealand
“Against a good Irish team, you only get a few opportunities, and we didn’t nail those. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit in the way they defended and their urgency to get back and shut those down.
“The way they bring the line speed to challenge, especially up on the inside, they manage to pressure the skill sets of opposition teams.
“We have good plans around that and we still managed to get opportunities but a big part of their game is to challenge teams in the way they defend.
“Even in the last couple of minutes, we were making progress, but you’ve got to give credit to the way the Irish defended. They put us under a lot of pressure and forced us into a few errors at times.”
It’s not all doom and gloom for the All Blacks.
Under Schmidt, Ireland are crafting a world-class team with heart, belief and depth. In the past year, they have hammered the Springboks by 35 points, won a Grand Slam and a first test series in Australia — all before this victory topped it all.
This is indeed a golden age. As for the All Blacks, time for introspection has arrived.
While Ardie Savea featured prominently and they weren’t helped by losing Liam Squire early, their loose forward trio was outplayed, with inspirational Irish blindside Peter O’Mahony setting standards.
The final point is the All Blacks have been exposed with switches of play back to the short side this year — Argentina just one team to find success there.
Schmidt suggested his lineout switch move for Jacob Stockdale’s only strike of the test was plucked from others, citing the Mitre 10 Cup and the Highlanders. Take that with a grain of salt. It was no surprise this specifically targeted the short side, an area where the All Blacks have previously been exposed this season.
“It was well done, and when they score a try like that, you’ve just got to acknowledge it was well played,” Smith said. “As a team, they have got a lot of tricks up their sleeve, but we’ve got to be a bit more on to it with how we defend those tricks, and that’s an example.
“As a team, we’ll learn a lot from that and we’ll get better.”