Is it fair to say that this scoreline flattered New Zealand? I’m trying to work out if that opener is hubristic or not. It feels hubristic but then I watched the game back again, and then again, and then again. Ireland were a good 15 points better than New Zealand here. We battered them physically, took them apart in the collisions, left the guts of two or three tries out there and burned the All Blacks out mentally, which was almost more impressive than all those other things put together.
This was what New Zealand looked like at the end of the first half after what seemed like an entire half worth of close-range defence in the face of bruising, high tempo rugby that pushed the All Blacks like they haven’t been pushed since the 2019 World Cup – and I should know, I watched every game.
Even the Springboks didn’t push the All Blacks like this which, again, sounds hubristic – and reflects the different strengths of the Springboks too, to be fair – but it reflects the status that the All Blacks still have. The Springboks are the World Champions but the All Blacks are still the bar by which the key Are You An Elite Rugby Team metric is measured.
If you are a team that regularly beats the All Blacks, You Are An Elite Rugby Team. If you do not, you are a pretender to that level. There are exceptions to the rule, of course. Wales haven’t beaten the All Blacks since 1953, for example, but I still wouldn’t bet against them turning Ireland over this spring. To put the last few years in perspective, however, Ireland have the same number of wins against the All Blacks in the last five years as Wales have in 36 games across 116 years.
So, what is happening?
Ireland are becoming a side who, like the Springboks, Wallabies and, to a lesser extent, England and France, are perceived by New Zealand rugby as a genuine threat. Nobody has a record like Ireland against the All Blacks since the middle of the last decade. We went 111 years without beating them but we’ve won three out of five games against them since Chicago.
In 2016, Ireland were a curiosity.
In 2018, Ireland were an annoyance.
In 2019, normality as New Zealand have seen it resumed but in 2021, Ireland produced a performance that will genuinely change perceptions for the next few years in the way that 2016 and 2018 didn’t.
We have to be ready for the ramifications that come with that.
But I genuinely think this Irish side are ready for that and more besides.
♛ ♛ ♛
From the very first play, Ireland knew they had the tools to hurt New Zealand and the knowledge that they could do so repeatedly.
I’ve spoken a fair bit about attacking depth on these pages over the years – ever since For Every Wall A Hammer, really – and the advantages it gives you against defensive line speed is, for me, undeniable at this stage.
For Ireland, attacking depth is a necessity, especially with an ageing flyhalf that we want to keep out of heavy traffic. From early on, Ireland were showcasing how we would use depth to stress the defensive cohesion of the All Blacks. Here’s a good example, even if it resulted in a turnover.
We knew we had them after this sequence, I’m sure of it. At the very least, we were sure that our attacking concepts had the capacity to stress the All Blacks in concert with the physical threat our pack – and front row in particular – were able to exert.
Look at the depth that Sexton keeps on the phases to keep himself out of the range of the All Blacks blitz. He knew they were coming to rough him up but he was always just out of range to the point where the All Blacks were reduced to catching him late to make any kind of physical impression on him.
Ireland’s attacking scheme seemed to be designed around punishing New Zealand for hyper-focusing on punishing Sexton, both positionally and from a discipline perspective.
When you combine depth with the physical dominance Ireland were able to wield with space for playmakers to make plays and run into space, you have a dangerous attacking machine that wins collisions, pressures the opposition’s discipline and creates opportunities.
Ireland used this concept consistently throughout the game for consistent success. If it felt that New Zealand really struggled to get a hold on our playmakers, it’s because they were consistently out of range. If that sounds familiar, it’s because New Zealand utilise similar concepts when they are ball-dominant.
So why did it not work for New Zealand? Well, it did – to an extent – they just didn’t have enough of the ball to hurt Ireland consistently. When they did have possession, they consistently attacked our edge defence to excellent effect and left 14 points on the table if it wasn’t for (a) poor passing in the red zone and (b) an excellent read and tackle by James Lowe.
Poor passing was a constant issue for the All Blacks. It’s uncharacteristic but a lot of that came down to selection, in my opinion. They had 15 turnovers, were rated down for 12 bad passes and coughed up six turnovers. In an environment where they were unable to generate workable transition events off their kicking game – and they kicked 13.1% of their possessions here – the game began to drift away from them.
Without possession, they spent most of the game making tackles and doing so excellently, for the most part, but physics will always tell in the end and they struggled to live with Ireland’s power, our front row in particular.
All that combined to create an incredibly special day for Irish rugby. But it can’t be a day in isolation. We saw what that counted for in 2019 – nothing. Beating New Zealand is always great but it can’t just be a great day out. We have to drive this on now to take it to its natural conclusion. If we beat New Zealand three times in five years, and New Zealand consistently look to challenge for World Cups and win their hemisphere championship every other year, then we need to do that too, all while developing the young talent we need to make this a self-sustaining success engine.
This was not a perfect performance from Ireland. In truth, New Zealand look to be in the middle of a transition themselves – in the depth chart, in their selection and in their pack – but we’ll take this win on its merits. Can we back this up in the spring against England and France? And then again in the summer with New Zealand baying for blood? That’s the pressure that comes with a win like this.
If we can live with that pressure, who knows where we can go.
We can’t be happy with just beating New Zealand. We have to become the kind of team that others judge themselves against and that road starts here.
Notable Players
There were a lot of Five Star performers here, as you can imagine. I’ll focus on some of the standouts.
Tadhg Beirne and Peter O’Mahony were genuine game-changers off the bench for Ireland with massive moments that turned the game in Ireland’s favour. They were joined by an excellent display of goal kicking by Joey Carbery, whose nerveless work off the tee steered Ireland home when it mattered. Iain Henderson did really well in the physical exchanges during his time on the field after a disrupted few days and his starting partner, James Ryan, showed closer to his best in a very strong performance.
The starting front row unit of Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong has a very good argument for being amongst the very best in the game anywhere. They dominated their direct opposition here but didn’t stop there. They spend most of the game – and Porter played 76 minutes – rinsing the rest of the New Zealand pack all over the field. The scrum was solid, the lineout/maul work was accurate and physical and their work around the field was of the highest standard. When you look at Ireland’s improved forward work, it’s hard to look at the bonus of being able to field all three of these absolute freaks at the same time. Formidable. ★★★★★
Caelan Doris put in one of the best individual displays that I’ve ever seen at test level. He was everywhere, doing everything, for the full 80 minutes. Carries? Yes. Tackles? Yes. Offensive and defensive breakdown work? Yes. Crucial tries? Yes, and yes. If he can stay fit and available, Doris will be a world-class player and there’s an argument that he has already ascended to that level in the last few weeks. A towering, outstanding display. ★★★★★
Jamison Gibson-Park played the game of his life here. He played with tempo, he kicked really well, he tracked and scragged well in defence and played with the kind of tempo a game like this needed to be successful. Looks to be Ireland’s starting guy now and, on this performance, rightly so for now, at least. ★★★★★
If James Lowe played for Munster, he’d be a cult hero. He doesn’t so there’s something of a latent animosity towards him because he’s a spiky character who plays his guts out for his team. He was criticised earlier this year for his defence – some of it over the top, but most of it with a grain of truth to it. At times, it wasn’t good enough and I think he knows that too. He took the time after the game to have a pop at the media who questioned his defence and, hey, I’d probably do the same if I were him. That doesn’t mean he was perfect in this game on the defensive side of the ball – he wasn’t – but he made the best read of his test career when it mattered and helped seal the win against the country of his birth.
How can you not love that energy? How can you not admire a guy who was roasted for his defence making a massive stop like that? I was delighted for him. James Lowe has always been a case of a guy who, if Ireland used properly in attack, could be devastating. When used as an extra ball-carrying midfielder – a looping power winger – he looks like the kind of guy the All Blacks could have used on a day like this where they struggled to impact with the ball in hand. Hide his weaknesses, play to his strengths and you have a quality operator capable of scoring and imposing himself on any opposition. ★★★★★
The Wally Ratings: New Zealand (H)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Andrew Porter | ★★★★★ |
| Ronan Kelleher | ★★★★★ |
| Tadhg Furlong | ★★★★★ |
| Iain Henderson | ★★★★ |
| James Ryan | ★★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★★★ |
| Josh Van Der Flier | ★★★★ |
| Jack Conan | ★★★★ |
| Jamison Gibson-Park | ★★★★★ |
| Johnny Sexton | ★★★★★ |
| James Lowe | ★★★★★ |
| Bundee Aki | ★★★★★ |
| Garry Ringrose | ★★★★★ |
| Andrew Conway | ★★★★ |
| Hugo Keenan | ★★★★★ |
| Rob Herring | ★★★ |
| Cian Healy | N/A |
| Finlay Bealham | ★★★ |
| Tadhg Beirne | ★★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★ |
| Joey Carbery | ★★★★ |
| Keith Earls | ★★★ |
