IRELAND-22 NEW ZEALAND-24

GUTTED BUT PROUD 

To read some of the commentary before this match you’d swear the biggest problem in Irish rugby was the music they played in the Aviva Stadium during matches.

To read some of the commentary after it, you’d swear the biggest problem in Irish rugby was to do with the way we are supposedly happy with “moral” victories rather than actual ones.

When you read my commentary, hopefully you will understand what I feel is the biggest problem in Irish rugby - blatant parochialism from broadcasters & fans alike whenever the boys in green take to the field.

Sure, Jonny Sexton should have made that 73rd min place kick to create an 8-point margin.

And sure, we let them get from deep inside their own half to snatch an improbable (even for the best team in the world) triumph from the jaws of defeat.

But those who see only the negativity in the performance are clearly choosing to do so, and as they desperately clutch at straw men to criticise, they do a grave disservice to the real Irish fans from all four provinces who shouldn’t be afraid to display their real emotions which quite rightly fall somewhere between disappointment and pride.

If I thought the tweet on the right was just an isolated example of the reaction I’m talking about I wouldn’t draw attention to it, but the sentiment was so commonplace around twitter, Journal.ie and all the usual areas of online commentary I feel I must.  And note how even though it’s an Irish tweeter, it still says “They” lost.

Have people forgotten the scoreline the last time Ireland played the All Blacks?

Have people forgotten the scoreline the last time Ireland played rugby?

As soon as the matchday 23 was announced there was extremely lazy analysis all throughout the Irish media, be it broadcast, print or social - I call it lazy because it took a very “safe” critical position on account of it being a Leinster-heavy selection, safe because with the All Blacks being 20-point favourites it would be then easy to draw the knives out should that margin have happened.

Well, it didn’t happen, so those people know what they can do with their knives.

Sorry for harping on like that, but I do feel it is a problem that real Irish fans need to highlight before we go any further.   And if you think I’m making this defence simply because I’m a Leinster fan then I reckon you may be part of the problem, as I defended Declan Kidney all the way through the 2010 & 2011 Six Nations right up to the RWC2011 quarterfinal against Wales.  Yes, I know many Leinster fans were biased against him when he was in charge but I certainly wasn’t one of them.

(By the way…Kidney’s first November series saw Ireland lose 22-3 to the All Blacks as well as wins over Canada and the still-without-a-tournament Argentina)

Now…to what actually happened on Sunday.  I have tried to break it down into some key components as well as the actual match progress itself.

FIRST QUARTER - Irish blitzkreig.  Brilliant from the off.  Manic to a man going forward, tenacious yet focused in defence when the All Blacks had the ball.  We had to come up with something, it had to happen in the first quarter, it was a job well done.  It wasn’t that we committed numbers to the breakdown, it was that whoever did get involved was given full license to behave like the Tasmanian devil and somehow from Best to D’Arcy to O’Driscoll we managed to do it again and again legally and thwart the opposition from establishing themselves offensively. 

I’m not so sure the success going forward was part of the plan.  In our wildest dreams I don’t think we could have expected to be 19-0 up at the end of the first quarter, but the confidence we had in ourselves without the ball managed to be translated into success with it and offloads were sticking, gain lines were being consistently broken and thanks to Rob Kearney’s jets, a turnover on our own 22 was being turned into a try.  With the first two scores coming from Murray and Best, the boys were even spreading the tries around the provinces for those who gave a damn about such things.

SECOND QUARTER - On the few occasions the All Blacks did have the ball in the first half it was clear Aaron Cruden fancied his team’s chances down our right wing.  So in the lead up to their opening try I’m not entirely sure why Tommy Bowe found himself over on our left along with Dave Kearney.  This left an overlap out wide and though it needed a pinpoint grubber to make it work, Cruden supplied it and Savea was over.

THIRD QUARTER - All the copy is about what happened in the final minutes…I actually think we lost it in the third quarter.  Just one score in that 20-minute period could have killed them off but I counted up to a dozen times we gave possession back to them whether it was a breakdown penalty, a knockon, or the biggest sin of all, Devin Toner’s needless block on Wyatt Crockett which turned a chance to clear from our 22 into their opening score of the period and brought them within the crucial 2 converted tries.

See how I’m acknowledging that we did things wrong?  Sorry if that doesn’t suit anyone’s agenda that I’m making excuses!

FINAL QUARTER - I really thought Nigel Owens was favouring us in the first half, but if he was, he made up for it in the lead up to the Ben Franks try as I thought on more than one breakdown New Zealand could have been done for sealing off.

But we can only properly criticise those things that we can control, and although it is easy to single out the place kick Sexton pushed wide late on, for me he needs to be in the dock more for his decision to go for the crossfield kick on 67m. 

It was pretty much our first time with decent territory in the second half and we merely needed to keep it simple and eat up the clock…not only was the kick inaccurate, it brought Beauden Barrett into the game and he was phenomenal in the closing stages.

Another decision I felt we got wrong was after Ma’a Nonu knocked on in the 77th minute.  A scrum at midfield could have killed even more time and THEN we could have possibly kicked for the territory.

BENCH CONTRIBUTIONS - Mostly top notch from both sides. We had to go to ours a lot earlier and Rory Best was remarkably unlucky as he was playing a blinder, but still Cronin had been doing well in his absence. BOD didn’t fare much better in the luck stakes but on a side note it was good to see the concussion laws being applied. 

The killer winning try came from a superb offload by replacement hooker Dane Coles to number 23 Ryan Crotty but for Ireland Kevin McLaughlin, Luke Fitzgerald, Declan Fitzpatrick and Mike McCarthy all made standout contributions.

OH YEAH, ALMOST FORGOT - OUR OPPOSITION! - Only one other team in 2013 has held the All Blacks to 24 points or less - and although France did it twice, in their three-test series they only mustered as many points themselves altogether as we did yesterday in one match. 

But do I REALLY need to provide that context? This is the number one team on the planet.  If you think their comeback was all about our slipping up and nothing about their quality then I don’t know what to say to you.  I especially have to laugh at all the talk about having to play for “80 minutes”, not because it isn’t true, but because New Zealand actually needed more than 81 to beat us.

THE PRESS CONFERENCES - Now…when it comes to criticising the performance, there is one group of people who are more than welcome to do so…Joe Schmidt & his players.  Their language since full-time has been spot on.  Of course THEY shouldn’t be making any allowances, and they aren’t.  They are professional sportspeople and part of their job is being able to close out these contests.  It just doesn’t help when their own fans are kicking them while they’re obviously down.

THE FANS IN THE STADIUM - By and large did a great job creating an electric atmosphere - sure, it took an amazing first quarter display to get things going but everyone seems to be agreement it was a superb occasion despite the result. 

I can’t say I was thrilled with the booing at the end though…it wasn’t quite at “Dan Parks Croke Park 2010” levels but still our players were at fault for jumping the gun for the conversion.  (Having said that - if you happen to know the rules of baseball, Cruden could easily have been called for a “balk”)

VERDICT ON GUINNESS SERIES - My report card for Ireland over these three matches shows a C-minus and a “must do better”.   Now that we know that after being together for just a few weeks, winning positions can be worked against the best teams in the world who have been together since August, we must now show that we can close them out.

HOW DO THINGS LOOK FOR THE FUTURE? - Now we’re bound to see the term “once off display” bandied about.  Yes, this is a problem we have had in the past, but for me, it’s unfair to talk about it now as our next match isn’t until February.  If we struggle for form against Scotland, then use it all you want but in the meantime, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

***

Truth be told, though I was gutted at the end I was actually closer to tears when I thought we had this match won.  What an historic moment that would have been.

But I sure as hell won’t allow anyone to tell me it’s not ok to feel an element of pride in my team for turning what everyone thought would be a blow-out into a cup final and for their part in one of the most exciting test matches of the calendar year. 

My Leinster jersey will be taken out of the wardrobe in time for next week, but you can be sure the green will be back well in time for the Six Nations, where I feel we are well poised to do some damage with absolutely the right man at the helm.  JLP

Click here for the post-match reaction on the HarpinOnRugby Facebook page

Also this weekend

Georgia 16 - 15 Samoa

Italy 14 - 19 Argentina

Russia 7 - 28 United States of America

Portugal 8 - 52 Canada

Spain 7 - 40 Japan

Romania 7 - 26 Fiji

Scotland 15 - 21 Australia

France 10 - 19 South Africa

NEW ZEALAND-22 IRELAND-19

WHEELING IN THE TEARS

“You have to say, Justin, there's only one team on the field that looks like scoring!”

“That's absolutely right...they have the momentum at the moment, and all the attitude to go with it!”

If you want unbiased TV coverage when the All Blacks are playing, you need to be sure to follow the New Zealand commentary. The gushing of respect from the UK version of Sky Sports towards the World Champions generally begins during the haka and never lets up.

As you can see by the above exchange between SkyNZ's Grant Nisbett and Justin Marshall, the Kiwis knew they'd been in a game when this one was over.

Sadly for Ireland, shortly after they said those words, at a time when they really needed the momentum they were enjoying to be reflected in the refereeing, Nigel Owens and Romain Poite combined to deny them by seeming to go out of their way to let the All Blacks off the hook.

Look...we can argue the toss about the “wheeling the scrum” call or indeed the knock on that went before it till the cows come home...in my book there may be a case for them to be given, but particularly in the scrum situation, I really don't see how any common sense was used in making the call. Why the hell would Ireland intentionally wheel at that point? They had superiority in the scrum, they had an extra man...let's face it, the All Blacks were there for the taking.

Best way to put it without getting upset is that the call was wrong, if not in technicality then definitely in spirit, and although this will always go down as the “one that got away” in Ireland's quest for a maiden victory over the men in black, they certainly need not look at their own performance for the reasons as they did last week.

And on the subject of having the extra man for the closing ten minutes, there's no doubt Owens got Dagg's yellow correct, and it was no more than the All Blacks deserved after McCaw's knee in D'Arcy's back (which ended his tour), Aaron Smith's arm around O'Driscoll's neck and Ali Williams kicking Eoin Reddan as he went for the quick outlet pass were all considered good enough for them to stay on the park.

I mean it's not as though we did everything perfectly ourselves; early scrums and lineouts were going wrong on our feed, some senseless penalties were being given away, we couldn’t seem to retrieve their restarts and one of our own didn’t go the full ten.

But although many questioned the wisdom of playing multiple tests against such quality opposition, one benefit it does give is a chance to regroup and iron out the kinks from the previous week, and this the Irish definitely did, particularly when the home side had the ball, and it's just as well, since they had it for 60% of the contest.

And it wasn't just the scrum call that went against us...throughout the match we saw several examples of the laws of the game being correctly applied whilst appearing unfair. First Dan Tuohy makes a good tackle and rolls away just as he should – sadly he rolls into an area that is construed as “sealing off” and Dan Carter gets as easy a 3 points as he'll ever get.

Then we perfectly employ our forté choke tackle, only to find the ensuing scrum go against us as the maul was formed following a kick.

Last and certainly not least, there was the ridiculous ruling that the All Blacks who chased down Carte's first attempt at a winning drop goal weren't offside because the “ball was touched in flight”. Again, absolutely the correct call as it did graze Sean O'Brien's farmer's paw on the way by, but for him to be effectively penalised for doing what any coach in the game would have him do is of course utterly absurd.

But hey...I know Roy Keane has a point when he poo-poos the Irish mentality of claiming “moral victories” despite losing on the scoreboard, but what we saw in Christchurch was a far cry from a half-hour's sing-song while witnessing humiliation on the pitch. The positives all over the park were there to be seen and deserve their adulation.

And the SkyNZ commentary duo wouldn't be the only Kiwis who would tell you how dominant Ireland were.

Ask Dan Carter, who despite having a backline behind him more than proven at Test level to cause serious damage, had to resort to desperate drop goal attempts to get his side ahead as though he were playing for an underdog on foreign soil.

Ask Richie McCaw and Adam Thompson – a pair of flankers more battered and bruised after a match at this level I doubt I've ever seen.

And you must certainly ask Sonny Bill Williams, who turned over the ball a half-a-dozen times and probably won't ever see as frightening a sight in a boxing ring than that of Cian Healy's scowling mug at the end of a straight arm that's grabbing his jersey beneath the throat.

The tackling heroes were all throughout the team...O'Brien and 50^-cap hero Jamie Heaslip were leading the way much as they did last week, the half-backs and centres were all but unpassable, but special mention I feel must go to our locks Dan Tuohy and Donnacha Ryan...didn't get a lot of mention by commentators of either nationality but at 14 tackles each and perfect lineout catches you could hardly ask much more from a pair that had just 22 caps between them at kickoff.

Now...we come to a sticky part of the writeup for this particular blogger. Last week I stuck it to Declan Kidney and Conor Murray, observations that many would say were made through blue-tinted glasses, as much as I'd try to claim they were as green as I could get them.

So given this 80-minute display and the fact that our lone try was scored by the young Munster scrum-half, does this mean I must now be gorging myself on humble pie? Sorry, but no.

I will praise this one performance as much as the next Irish fan, and on twitter I did so shortly after full-time. As far as 80 minutes of test rugby goes, this was up there with the greatest ever by the men in green.

But when you look over Kidney's tenure, yes, you see a Grand Slam at his first attempt, but following that you see a series of Autumn Internationals, Six Nations and a World Cup that are all characterized by one outstanding display...defeat of the Boks in 2009, demolishing Wales in 2010, England in early 2011 and Australia late, and the spirited draw in Paris this season. Each of them memorable outings that were erased not too long afterwards by mediocrity.

So as much as I hate to say it, for this narrow defeat to count for anything, they need to match it afterwards, and as we all know, that won't be easy given the squad's ever-increasing injury count plus the fact that the long-winding road that has been the 2011/12 campaign will be coming to an end for all involved.

Considering those mitigating factors, I may forgive them if the intensity levels aren't quite as high next Saturday, but as far as I'm concerned they will need to crank it up again in November when the Boks come a-knockin once more.

Then there's Conor Murray. This time he played a lot more of his natural game...rather than taking an age to fire off his pass every time, he still took an age but this time he often took it himself, mostly for a decent gain and of course one for our only try.

It's just that I'm still left wondering if we could have crossed their line more often with a more positive approach?

Yes, our tackling and our kick-chasing were superb, but I still won't be happy until I see Reddan or even Paul Marshall given the starting nod with Sexton for a few matches in a row to see if we can actually lay a knockout blow when we have our opponent on the ropes rather than trying to win on points.

We must not of course forget the significance of this occasion...Christchurch is a city with a fine rugby tradition and it was great to see it welcome the Test version of the game back after the tragedy of last year.

But purely from a rugby point of view, I doubt Steve Hansen will face anything near as stern a test on home soil when the inaugural Investec Rugby Championship kicks off in August. I'm also wondering...would Ireland’s starting with 9-10-12 combination the same as it finished in Christchurch give him something new to think about in Hamilton? Wouldn't be a provincial half-back pairing, so surely Declan would consider it? JLP

Also this weekend

Argentina 23 - 20 France
South Africa 36 - 27 England
Australia 25 - 23 Wales
Fiji 25 - 37 Scotland