KEY POINTS:
For 39 minutes, it was shaping as a belting contest. Then it all went wrong for Ireland.
And the blame sits squarely with Brian O'Driscoll. The Irish captain's relationship with the All Blacks will never be warm and embracing, courtesy of his being dumped out of the Lions tour a minute into their first test in Christchurch three years ago.
O'Driscoll took his dislocated shoulder injury, and the manner in which it happened, badly.
To many hardcore All Black fans, of course, that made him an Irish whinger, a view which takes no account of the fact that the two All Blacks who ended his tour got off scot-free for an appalling piece of handiwork.
So you think O'Driscoll's desire to break his country's test duck after 103 years of trying has hardened since then?
A minute before halftime, and with Ireland's Ronan O'Gara having walloped a fine long-distance penalty to make it 3-all, it was all on.
Ireland had defended stoutheartedly, had a few moments going forward and in young second five-eighths Luke Fitzgerald and flanker Alan Quinlan possessed respectively a fleet-footed attacker with real zest, and an old-fashioned hard nut to whom a backward step belongs in a tango.
The 82,000 voices were readying a Croke Park roar for when the battle resumed, and the longer Ireland stayed close, surely the greater resonance of the roar.
So when O'Driscoll gathered one of those aimless backwards-and-forwards kicks that punctuate the game these days, the clock had already ticked past 40 minutes. Step into touch and head for the tunnel with Irish tails up.
Instead, the richly gifted centre, whose instinctive desire to attack is usually a good thing, popped a little dinky kick over the top into All Black hands. It was a moment in the life of this Brian to forget.
About a minute later, Ireland's wing Tommy Bowe was punching the ball into the in-goal area to prevent Richie McCaw from scoring, and South African referee Mark Lawrence was awarding a penalty try and giving Bowe 10 minutes on the sideline.
There's little point speculating what might have transpired had O'Driscoll done the smart, the sensible, the logical thing and stepped out. But unquestionably his actions decisively tilted the test the All Blacks' way.
Until then, there had been a sense that although the All Blacks were pressing, Ireland had held firm; their scrum - even including big, bald, amiable John Hayes who has always looked incapable of scrummaging a blancmange - was holding up. Their tackling was sound, their debutant halfback Tomas O'Leary looked distinctly useful.
There could be no complaints at the penalty-try decision, but when Lawrence pulled out his yellow card it was a double whammy against the Irish and desperately tough.
Lawrence, a referee known to have a few tickets on himself, could have used common sense. The penalty try was surely sufficient punishment.
When Tony Woodcock got his sin-binning for a punch unseen by any camera, the All Blacks scored 12 points. They won easing away, and most likely would have even without O'Driscoll's blunder. But it would have been fun finding out.
* Two moments to savour from the weekend. First, Danny McGuire's brilliant try for England against the Kiwis at Suncorp Stadium just before halftime. From a scrum, lock Rob Purdham grubber-kicked into space for McGuire to sprint through a split defence and dash away to score. Brilliantly conceived; expertly carried out.
Neither description would apply to the Kiwis' 32-22 win, in which they appeared to be doing their best to keep England in the contest for much of the second half. The Kangaroos will be quaking after watching this.
And not to forget the United States' bizarre goal against North Korea in the under-17 women's World Cup final at North Harbour yesterday. A long throw-in bounced among a throng of players in the penalty area and over the head of goalkeeper Hong Myong Hui, who flapped at the ball and touched it into her own goal.
Still, Hong was smiling at the end and organisers should give themselves a pat on the back for a highly successful tournament.
