Rugby: All Blacks aftermath - All you need to know about Ireland's historic win over the All Blacks

NZ Herald

18 Nov, 2018 05:00 AM2 mins to read

New Zealand and Ireland players react. Photo / AP

All you need to know about Ireland's historic 16-9 victory over the All Blacks.

Match report – All Blacks stunned by Ireland in thrilling Dublin test

Ireland can now claim to be the best team in the world after producing a stunning performance that was brave, creative and relentless, writes Gregor Paul.

They deserved the win and with it, they deserve to be seen as world rugby's best team even if the rankings don't agree.

Read the full match report here. And here's a full recap of the action and a post-game Q&A with rugby writer Patrick McKendry.

Analysis

Ireland are the world's best, then. Certainly that is now true of 2018.

Six Nations champions, and now having secured their first home victory over the All Blacks in history, to go alongside their maiden win two years ago, they are deserving of that mantle.

Read Liam Napier's piece on how Ireland exposed All Blacks' flaws.

The unthinkable has happened. Hell has frozen over. Watch Martin Devlin's special All Blacks edition of We Need to Talk.

And Patrick McKendry runs through the winners and losers from the test, including a very out of sorts Kieran Read.

Reaction

As you'd expected there was plenty of reaction post-match.

Here's how the world reacted, including the best commentary call you'll hear today by Radio Sport's Nigel Yalden during the final moments of the test.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was gracious in defeat and conceded the All Blacks' world no 1 status to Ireland: "What it does do is make them as of now the number one team in the world and I guess that does make them favourites [for the World Cup]."

Ireland's head coach Joe Schmidt on the other hand, played down his side's World Cup favourites tag. Read how the creative Kiwi masterminded Ireland's win.