New Zealand players walk on the pitch together as they wave and applaud fans after they were defeated by Ireland 29-20. Photo / AP
New Zealand players walk on the pitch together as they wave and applaud fans after they were defeated by Ireland 29-20. Photo / AP
The All Blacks were left to lament attempting to survive off scraps, failing to take limited attacking chances and a marginal second half try being ruled out after defeat to Ireland heaped pressure on their final test of the season.
Ireland's 29-20 upset in Dublin, their third win against theAll Blacks in the last five years, was characterised by a dominant forward platform and starving the visitors of possession.
While All Blacks coach Ian Foster praised Ireland's inspired performance, he took umbrage with the decision to rule out Akira Ioane's second half try after receiving an apparent forward pass from brother Rieko.
"They thoroughly deserved their win. They came out and played incredibly well. They held the ball for long periods. It was probably the best performance from Ireland I've come up against in my time with the All Blacks I thought they were pretty polished," Foster said, before suggesting he felt Ioane's try should have stood.
"I thought Will Jordan's was a great try and Akira's was a great try but the TMO didn't and that's probably the story of the game. I certainly saw it differently, but that's life. It's clearly a marginal call."
New Zealand's Dalton Papalii looks up after they were defeated by Ireland 29-20 in the international rugby union match between Ireland and New Zealand. Photo / AP
Worryingly for the All Blacks this loss, their second of the season, exposed familiar vulnerabilities to recent defeats with the forward pack physically dominated. They did not to win enough ball or generate enough go forward to consistently trouble Ireland. The lineout also wobbled at crucial times, and Aaron Smith's glaring speed absence was telling.
The All Blacks were forced to contend with 39 per cent possession, 33 per cent territory and make 238 tackles - 137 more than Ireland. Ireland's dominance is revealed most, however, in the eight minutes they spent in the All Blacks' 22 compared to 37 seconds Foster's men enjoyed.
Defensively, the All Blacks displayed heart to stoically defend their line for long periods in the first half but they eventually cracked to concede three tries.
All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock, who made a big call to take the shot while six points down and with 11 minutes remaining, conceded his men did not put Ireland under any form of sustained pressure.
Ireland's Jack Conan, center, holds off New Zealand's Akira Ioane during the international rugby union match between Ireland and New Zealand. Photo / AP
"They hid the ball from us so we were on the defensive side for a long time," Whitelock said. "I felt like when we did get possession we were getting some good inroads but we needed more of the ball. It's hard to win test matches when you're camped in your 22 making a whole lot of tackles. That's definitely something we need to get better at."
Falling to 12-2 for the season, after losing to the Springboks five weeks ago, leaves the All Blacks' campaign precariously placed ahead of another huge test to finish the year in Paris next week.
Foster will be sweating on the fitness of Beauden Barrett, who failed his HIA after 21 minutes, and Anton Lienert-Brown's shoulder injury after he departed just before half time.
Leading 10-5 at the break after clinging on defensively the All Blacks immediately found themselves on the backfoot after two early second half tries. Attempting to chase the game Jordan conjured a brilliant strike from inside the All Blacks 22 but Ireland refused to surrender their advantage to emerge with another treasured scalp that improves their unbeaten run this year to seven games.
"We've got no excuses of saying this wasn't a World Cup game or anything like that," Foster said. "We were very excited about playing. We didn't get what we want, hung in there, and still didn't get what we want so sometimes you've got to accept you're second best on the night.
"It's been three years since we've been up here. For a number of the players who haven't been in a big test up here it's very different. It's very much a pressure game you've got to deal with. You've got to be at the top end of your discipline and when you give up a couple of back-to-back penalties you feed a game that teams like to play.
"Sometimes you've got to roll your sleeves up and suck it up and fight your way back into the game which I felt we were doing."
On that same theme Foster voiced his frustrations with Ireland following South Africa's script of slowing the game at every opportunity, particularly in the final quarter when fatigue set in.
"The last 15 minutes there were a lot of stoppages, a lot of cramping, a lot of deliberately slowing the game down which was a bit frustrating. Sometimes when you have a lot of ball you have to send a lot of people to rucks where we only had to commit one tackler. Whilst it's not the way we wanted to play it sucked a lot of juice out of them as well. I don't think energy or tackles was the difference in the game it was taking your opportunities when they're presented. When you're playing a quality team you have to do that.
"The game is supposed to be played fast. If someone is injured they get a certain window of time and if they can't fix it in that time they go to the sideline. It's hard for the refs to try speed the game up. This is not a biggie for me, but it was clearly a tactic. Good on them for doing it, there was a lot of them going down with cramp."
The major problem for the All Blacks is the blueprint for troubling them is clear. They now have seven days before an immediate response will be demanded in a similar intimidating cauldron.
