Redemption for 2016 was on every Kiwi’s mind, while the Irish were hoping the local support would help them to continue to take the game from New Zealand and get another win. Leading into this game the ABs, despite coming 2nd in the Rugby Championship, had not looked like a settled team all year. The French B team gave them a couple of scares, although to be fair their B team had some decent players in it, and while they managed to beat the Wallabies twice to retain the Bledisloe Cup, they lost in Argentina for the first time ever and got well thrashed in Wellington by the Boks.
Ireland are having their first game of the season and while they are still No 3 in world rankings, they have lost a lot of senior players and are finding their feet a bit. They also had a couple of injuries with both Hugo Keenan and Mack Hansen out with injury and Bundee Aki starting on the bench to manage a knock. For both teams the games this year are important for the rugby world rankings as it is the last chance to get points before the seeding for the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Ireland are currently third and would like to be in the top four for top seeding, with France and England lurking in fourth and fifth. A couple of defeats in the autumn internationals here could be detrimental down the line. Ireland will also play Japan, Australia and South Africa this month, those games all in Dublin, while the ABs will play Scotland, England and Wales hoping to get a grand slam win.
The Game
This really was a game of two different halves. The game started at a snail pace with the TMO getting in early and along with some indecision there was some technology fails that wouldn’t allow the on field officials to view the incident. After an age of mucking around Ireland’s Tadhg Beirne finally received a Red Card for a high hit on Beauden Barrett. This year the 20 min RC has been brought in for the internationals so Ireland were down to 14 for just 20 minutes. Unfortunately for the ABs, they could not take advantage of this and in the same half they lost both Jordie and Scott Barrett to injuries. Some over officiating along with some poor handling by the ABs meant that the game was very much a stop start affair with New Zealand looking more like getting a grand slam of losses than anything else from the tour. Ireland really took the game to NZ with some great rush defence that stifled the attack of the ABs and with Gibson-Park firing out some fast ball, the ABs were struggling to stay in the game. At the same time, one thing that has gone relatively well this year has been the individual defence of the ABs and while they looked disrupted and confused for a lot of the time there was some very good individual defence. Ireland went to a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes with a brave call to go for a line out at 3-0 up that led to a try by Tadhg Furlong. The ABs hit back with a try to Ardie Savea and at half time the score was 10 – 7 to the Irish. Neither team would have been happy with the way they played and no doubt there were some harsh words said in the changing rooms.
The second half initially started in a similar fashion with Ireland’s rush defence strangling the AB attack and some pushed passes and kicks not really adding to anything in the AB game. However as the half went on, the ABs started to realise they could win this game. They started moving the ball faster and creating some space that was used well. Passes were held and there was some really good running by both forwards and backs. Jack Crowley scored a penalty that stretched Ireland’s lead to 13-7 early in the second half, but that proved their last score as Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Cameron Roigard all crossed in the space of 15 minutes with Beauden Barrett converting two of them for a final score of 26 to 13 to New Zealand.
The Game Changer
While the Red Card hurt Ireland, the ABs were not able to take advantage of the numbers. Losing both Barrett’s early disrupted the ABs, but again they weren’t game changers for the match and Ireland went in ahead at half time despite playing for 20 mins with only 14 players. The bench proved to be a bit of a difference with the ABs lifting the tempo of the game and both Williams and Sititi coming off the bench and scoring tries.
However, for me the real game changer was the ABs were playing their 10th test of the year while Ireland were playing their first. A lot of the better play in the 2nd half came about because fatigue had started to settle into the Irish players and they just couldn’t play at the same pace they started the game with. “Match fitness” is absolutely a thing and the ABs had it and Ireland didn’t. For me it was actually as simple as that.
MOTM
The official MOTM was Fabian Holland and to be fair he had a very good game. Whether he was forced to play the full 80 minutes because of Barrett’s injury or not he was very good. His lineout work was excellent and he took the ball into contact well while also making some solid tackles. I thought both 9’s were very good with Roigard just sneaking ahead of Gibson-Park with some lovely 2nd half passing and a very good try. The long cross field pass he did from near his own goal line that opened up the Irish as a thing of beauty and I hope to see more of that play as the tour develops.
The NZ tight 5 were very good without dominating the Irish. Some of our tight 5 demonstrating some good ball skills at times and all of them showing they can move the ball well. Irelands forwards were very good and while they slowed down near the end when fatigue kicked in, they will be pleased with the way they were able to take the game to the ABs and dominate them at times.
Conclusion
Ireland will be very disappointed that they could not have taken more from this game and no doubt questions will be raised about the decision to play the ABs first up for the year. They are still struggling with who is their best 10 and while they were very good at times they will want to show they can continue the pace for longer in the remainder of the games leading up to the all important World Cup draw at the end of the year.
New Zealand will be happy to have come out on top and gained some redemption from the loss in 2016. However, for me there are still some issues that need to be resolved. For me the team still looks a little bit disjointed with players not seeming to truly understand their role and some confusion about what exactly the game plan is. Players seem to kick when it looks as though they should run and they have struggled a bit with basic skills – like catching a high up and under. The biggest struggle for me though is the lack of ability for them to transition fast from defence into attack. I have always seen this as a hallmark in the past where as soon as the opposition made a mistake the team would instantly transition from defence into attack and multiple players would be going hard downfield supporting each other. This was always hard for the opposition to manage and was a huge part of the winning formula of previous teams.
The ABs just don’t look as though they are all on the same page this year. Players are receiving the ball and looking surprised that it has come to them and there are too many times when passes are not going to hand because the players are not synched up. The kicking game is all over the place and there just doesn’t seem to be a well understood plan for the games. For me, they still seem to be relying on an individual to do something special rather than having a good game plan that creates the space for the good players to take. There is no doubt that the coaching team have struggled with the jump from Super rugby to International rugby and I still think that is the biggest issue they need to resolve.
