All Blacks give Irish a lesson in control
IRELAND’S quest for a first-ever win on New Zealand soil will switch to Dunedin on Saturday when their walking wounded will try to recover from a frustrating opening encounter at Eden Park.
The All Blacks, beaten in three of their last five games against the Irish, exacted revenge for their November loss in Dublin with the minimum of fuss as they got their international season up and running with a six tries to three victory.
They did most of the damage in a blistering 11minute blitz before half-time when they struck for 21 unanswered points to lead 28-5 at the interval.
Ireland recovered after the break to prevent a massive hammering but their first tour to New Zealand in a decade is turning into a farce with the injury problems in the front row.
Munster hooker Niall Scannell was plucked from a Portugal beach earlier this week to play against the Maoris on Wednesday in boots borrowed from Andrew Porter and, with several prop issues, 36year-old Kiwi Michael Bent, who retired from full-time rugby a year ago when he left Leinster, was drafted in as an additional player.
Bent, who won the last of his four Irish caps in 2015, did the warm-up but was not needed, even though Cian Healy, injured in midweek, was not risked off the bench.
And with Jeremy
Loughman out with concussion, Finlay Bealham a late withdrawal off the bench with Covid and Leinster loosehead Ed Byrne delayed on his flight from Dublin, it meant Porter had to play 80 minutes and it told as he coughed up several penalties.
It all amounted to a very poor platform to try and oust an All Blacks side keen to answer their own critics. But the fears of Ian Foster and his management were justified as Ireland opened brightly
and showed good variety in their play and the game was rightly delicately poised at 7-5 after half an hour.
An 18-phase move yielded the opening try for the visitors with Hugo Keenan’s excellent past putting veteran Keith Earls in on the right after six minutes.
Ireland exposed but did not exploit openings in the All Blacks defence with Beauden Barrett intercepting a Garry Ringrose pass which would surely have put scrum-half Jamison
Gibson-Park through for a second try after 15 minutes.
New Zealand, as usual, did not panic and got off the mark when Jordie Barrett cut a good line to score after good work from wingers Sevu Reece and Leicester Fainga’anuku. Then it all fell apart for Ireland and into place for New Zealand. Reece intercepted a Ringrose pass to score from near his own 22, with Ireland losing captain Johnny Sexton to a head knock in the move that broke down.
Quinn Tupaea finished off good work from Beauden Barrett and Sam Cane to score and then the All Blacks turned the screw when scrum-half Aaron Smith broke from the base of a ruck and they got the bounce of the ball for
Ardie Savea to score and lead 28-5 at the interval.
Ireland recovered after the restart with a good offload from James Lowe putting Ringrose over in the left corner but then Savea escaped tackles from Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw to get his second try. Centre Rioke Ioane did superbly to prevent Joey Carbery and then Josh van der Flier from grounding the ball in separate moves before debutant Pita Gus Sowakula showed them how to do it when he burst over, with Jordie Barrett’s sixth conversion making it 42-12 nine minutes from time.
Bundee Aki got his second try of the week four minutes from time, after Porter was held up over the line, but this opening Test belonged to the All Blacks and Foster wants them to build on it in Dunedin.
“It was the first Test, and it’s good to have a good win under your belt. We stated before this series was really big for us,” said Foster. “When you look at the bigger picture it’s a chance to play a team we’ve got massive respect for, we know is doing really well and bringing them down here for three in a row is pretty special.
“Overall, I’m delighted to start off well with the preparation we’ve had. I thought we saw a very determined Irish team and they would have had enough glimpses of good moments in that first quarter particularly, and the way they finished, to walk away with a bit of hope.”