{"id":592113,"date":"2026-07-18T13:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592113\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T13:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:01:14","slug":"all-blacks-beat-ireland-with-plenty-to-spare-at-eden-park-fortress-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592113\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks beat Ireland with plenty to spare at Eden Park fortress \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nations Championship: New Zealand 40 Ireland 21<\/p>\n

Eden Park, though far from the noisiest or intimidating of arenas, remains an impenetrable fortress, now for 53 games. <\/p>\n

In truth, the result was never in doubt. The All Blacks<\/a> always seemed to have Ireland<\/a> at arm\u2019s length and duly won with something to spare.<\/p>\n

The six-tries-to-three outcome reflected their more dynamic carrying, quicker recycling and higher attacking tempo. Ireland perhaps showed them too much respect, not staying in the tackle and allowing the All Blacks to generate rapidly quick ball.<\/p>\n

Still, this was an invaluable exercise for Andy Farrell<\/a> and his slightly understrength team. Although authors of their own problems in falling 28-7 behind at the break, they stayed in the fight and even grew into the game, at one point coming to within a converted try of returning home with two bonus points. <\/p>\n

In this respect, Sam Prendergast was a barometer of the team\u2019s display. Most of his line kicking, bar one exception, and his crosskicking and passing were of a high quality. Dan Sheehan ran with real oomph here, and Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan kept probing and tackling, while some of Hugo Keenan\u2019s takes were exceptional.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Andy Farrell bites his tongue on officiating following Ireland\u2019s loss to New ZealandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland v New Zealand: player ratingsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0New Zealand 40-21 Ireland (FT) as it happenedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ireland could not really attach a huge amount of blame for the result to some truly awful hometown officiating, and Nic \u2018no jackal\u2019 Berry did Ireland little or no favours. Considering how Beirne\u2019s yellow was upgraded to a red in Chicago last November, it was utterly ridiculous that Luke Jacobsen only escaped with a yellow for what seemed like an act of thuggery and ditto that Quinn Tupaea did not even receive a yellow for a one-handed, knock-on intercept. <\/p>\n

When the lights were dimmed for the usual prematch pageantry and the haka, there was a palpable sense of occasion and it seemed more apt for Ireland that the last track before kick-off was Eminem\u2019s One Shot. <\/p>\n

Dan Sheehan won the toss and Ireland elected to kick off but their first attack off the ensuing lineout inside halfway floundered when Garry Ringrose slightly over-ran Stuart McCloskey\u2019s pass, which rather set the tone for Ireland\u2019s first-half inability to sustain any kind of pressure. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Nick Timoney is tackled by Xavier Numia of New Zealand. Photograph: INPHO\/Photosport\/Craig Butland <\/p>\n

The All Blacks\u2019 hard, straight lines of running from depth were forcing Ireland to absorb pressure and they were stretched close to breaking point when Tadhg Beirne got in Cam Roigard\u2019s passing lane. Ireland were also slightly disrupted when Jimmy O\u2019Brien went off for an HIA to be replaced by Ciaran Frawley as the All Blacks again made headway on the edges before Patrick Tuipulotu took a pass from fellow lock Josh Lord to go through a yawning gap in the green line and break Hugo Keenan\u2019s tackle to score. <\/p>\n

A thumping double hit by Tuipulotu and Jordie Barrett on Beirne stopped another Irish attack, Frawley was accidentally caught flush on the head by Keenan\u2019s knee and Ardie Savea looked laughably offside when blocking Jamison Gibson-Park\u2019s kick. The latter then made a brilliant tackle on Damian McKenzie before Frawley was led off to be replaced by Bundee Aki before O\u2019Brien returned. <\/p>\n

McKenzie was proving elusive though, slipping out of Rob Baloucoune\u2019s tackles and sidestepping Sam Prendergast before being hauled down by Josh van der Flier. But Savea flew off the base of an attacking scrum outside of Beirne and through Gibson-Park, Prendergast and O\u2019Brien for a second try that felt inevitable. <\/p>\n

The penalty count was 5-0 to the All Blacks when they looked set to score again with a penalty advantage when Luke Jacobson pulled his elbow out as he launched himself at van der Flier\u2019s scrum cap with what looked like a thuggish cheap shot. <\/p>\n

\"NewNew Zealand’s Cameron Roigard puts in a clearing kick. Photograph: INPHO\/Photosport\/Craig Butland <\/p>\n

Even Berry had to penalise the All Blacks for the first time and brandish a yellow card which, risibly, was not upgraded to a red. <\/p>\n

When Barrett was then pinged for not rolling away, Ireland kicked to the corner, launched McCloskey up the middle and after some handling and running lines, Conan steamed on to Gibson-Park\u2019s pass to burst between Ethan de Groot and Asafo Aumua to score. <\/p>\n

At that point, a 14-7 deficit was a good outcome for Ireland, but they immediately shot themselves in the foot. Running out the restart off a couple of recycles, Stuart McCloskey\u2019s no-look pull back landed on the deck behind Hugo Keenan. Will Jordan picked up and scored his customary try against Ireland. <\/p>\n

Worse still, when Baloucoune lost the ball in contact, Ruben Love executed a 50-22. With Jacobsen back on the pitch Aumua, the replacement hooker, steamed infield off the lineout and was on hand to take McCloskey\u2019s tackle and score, thus making it 28-7 at the interval.<\/p>\n

Ireland had to respond quickly after the restart and did, making inroads with a launch play off a scrum before McCloskey offloaded to Conan and Gibson-Park sniped. After Ireland kicked a penalty to the corner, Joe McCarthy came steaming around the lineout and though he and Conan were in turn held up, the Irish lock scored from close range with James Ryan latching on. <\/p>\n

Even so, Barrett continued have an influential game, manufacturing a 50-22 to put his team on the attack again, and although Beirne did well to hold up Tyrel Lomax, quick hands by Quinn Tupaea led to Love being tackled just short of the line before McKenzie scored with a sharp pick up and dot down.<\/p>\n

Quinn Tupaea was penalised for a diving, one-handed knock down when Beirne would have been in the clear but, risibly, was not yellow-carded. Even so, Ireland went to the corner, and built up a head of steam before Prendergast switched blind and drew Barrett before putting Keenan over with a bridge pass. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Joe McCarthy is tackled by New Zealand’s Ardie Savea. Photograph: INPHO\/Ben Brady <\/p>\n

He also converted from the touchline, and then crosskicked to Frawley, but he was tackled by Barrett, who was given a questionable penalty in the jackal. Instead, the All Blacks had the final say when Jordan slipped the ball to Anton Lienet-Brown. <\/p>\n

Although an All Blacks pass went over the touchline with five seconds left, Berry prematurely ended the game, thus denying Ireland one last, long-range shot at a fourth try. <\/p>\n

So, Ireland ended up with no tangible reward from the game, meaning France will probably go two points above them in the northern hemisphere table with a bonus point win over Japan.<\/p>\n

Scoring sequence \u2013 14 MINS: <\/b>Tuipulotu try, Love con 7-0; 22:<\/b> Savea try, Love con 14-0; 33: <\/b>Conan try, Prendergast con 14-7; 35:<\/b> Jordan try, Love con 21-7; 39: <\/b>Aumua try, Love con 28-7; Half-time 28-7<\/b>; 45: <\/b>McCarthy try, Prendergast con 28-14; 56: <\/b>McKenzie try, Love con 35-14; 63: <\/b>Keenan try, Prendergast con 35-21; 79:<\/b> Anton Lienert-Brown try 40-21<\/p>\n

NEW ZEALAND:<\/b> D McKenzie; W Jordan, Q Tupaea, J Barrett; J Moorby; R Love, C Roigard; E de Groot, C Taylor, T Lomax, J Lord, P Tuipulotu, T Vaa\u2019i, L Jacobson, A Savea (capt). Replacements: <\/b>Fr Newell for Lomax (5-15, 56 mins), A Aumua for Taylor (32), X Numia for de Groot (50), C Clarke for Love (57), A Segner for Tuipoulotu (58), A Lienert-Brown for Tupaea (68), P Lakai for Jacobsen, C Ratima for Roigard (both 73).<\/p>\n

Yellow card: <\/b>Jacobson (28 mins).<\/p>\n

IRELAND: <\/b>H Keenan; R Baloucoune, G Ringrose, S McCloskey, J O\u2019Brien; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; T O\u2018Toole, D Sheehan (capt), T Furlong, J McCarthy, J Ryan, T Beirne, J van der Flier, Jack Conan. Replacements: <\/b>C Frawley for O\u2019Brien (13-20, 60 mins), B Aki for Frawley (20) and McCloskey (60), N Timoney for van der Flier, S Jansen for Ryan (both 58), T Clarkson for Furlong (60), R Kelleher for Sheehan, J Loughman for O\u2019Toole (both 68), C Casey for Gibson-Park (75).<\/p>\n

Referee:<\/b> N Berry (Aus).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nations Championship: New Zealand 40 Ireland 21 Eden Park, though far from the noisiest or intimidating of arenas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[34133,70904,18,19,17,34132,4334,107514,132],"class_list":["post-592113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-match-report","tag-nations-championship","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116941113893376192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}