If you were lucky enough to have had a birds' eye view of this first, and perhaps last, appearance by the All Blacks at Croke Park yesterday, you will have appreciated how good the Kiwis can be. From that angle you see perfectly all the running off the ball as well as the running on it. The former makes it all the harder for opponents to keep a shape on their defence, and the latter makes it nearly impossible to plug the dyke when a leak is sprung.
Last night the boys in green were the ones plugging the holes. For much of the first 40 minutes they had done it really well, living as well off turnovers as off their own set-piece ball. Neither amounted to anything like enough to trouble the All Blacks who take their winning stat in this fixture to 21 from 22 games with one drawn.
They are moving sweetly, with that irresistible mix of lethal running in loose play and sound stuff at the scrum and out of touch. There was a brief period when Ireland looked like they might get some compensation from the All Black lineout, but quickly it returned to the slow - painfully so at times - and accurate source of good quality ball.
It is worthy of comment because there was nothing else on offer for the home team. Over 80 minutes Ronan O'Gara, who had a stressed afternoon along with debutant Tomas O'Leary, got two shots on goal. Late in the second half with the issue sorted, Marcus Horan threw an awful pass to nowhere with two men outside him, and the crowd groaned.
And yet, coming to the end of the first half the home team were looking at a positive result. There is a fine line between competing like a man possessed at the breakdown and letting that possession get the better of you. Ireland had no choice but to climb all over the Kiwis here but there was a price to be paid, and it was probably as high as the amount of ball they were turning over. What turned it into a bargain operation was the unusual hiccup in the goal-kicking form of Dan Carter.
He missed two handy chances in the first half-hour but in the end it did not matter. With time running out at the end of the first half, they got a good break when Tommy Bowe's desperate defence cost his team a penalty try. New Zealand's build up had been steady and accurate and if your first thought when Ma'a Nonu grubbered the ball in the Ireland22 was that he had acted hastily, it was wiped out quickly by what followed.
In fairness to Bowe he was terrorised by the presence of McCaw chasing the same ball, and the All Black captain had the extra momentum. Bowe slapped the ball to what might have seemed at the time like safety - touch in goal - but rapidly it did not look much like security.
Without too much deliberation Johan Meuwesen told referee Lawrence to give the penalty try and with Carter's conversion came the half-time whistle with a 10-3 lead for New Zealand. Not surprisingly Bowe did some time in the bin for his crime.
That rather changed the complexion of things. Facing no wind, no rain, and with an extra man he scene was set for them to put some more space between the teams. They started the new half menacingly - perhaps a little too menacingly for Tony Woodcock who was binned after three minutes for foul play. And how did his team react? Pretty much as Graham Henry might have hoped. A beautiful run by Carter though the heart of Ireland's defence - gliding, fending and then offloading to Jimmy Cowan - had Ali Williams finish over the line only to have the try claim turned down.
Within two minutes though they had a touchdown that needed no second opinion. With Paul O'Connell struggling to run off a leg injury Ireland were a man down on defence and it hurt them more. A perfect run by Joe Rokocoko from out wide made the space for Nonu to finish from 20 metres and under no pressure.
Carter added the points to put them 17-3 clear and if that did not conclude business then what happened next did for sure. Again New Zealand found space down Ireland's tramlines and this time it was Brad Thorn who got the try-scoring pass. He took a couple of tacklers with him but while Mr Lawrence frequently needed a dig out on things like forward passes, this time he didn't delay us. They cantered from there, with Ali Williams taking the man of the match award. Ireland's contenders were not mapped. David Wallace and Luke Fitzgerald were the best of a well beaten team.
Brendan Fanning is rugby correspondent for the Sunday Independent
IRELAND Dempsey (Earls 71); Bowe, O'Driscoll (capt), Fitzgerald (P Wallace 75), Kearney; O'Gara, O'Leary; Horan, R Best (Flanner 58), Hayes (Buckley 78), O'Callaghan, O'Connell (Ferris 62), Quinlan, D Wallace (Jennings 78), Heaslip
Replacements not used Flannery, Reddan
Pen O'Gara
NEW ZEALAND Muliaina; Rokocoko (Donald 76), Smith, Nonu, Sivivatu; Carter, Cowan (Weepu 61); Woodcock (Tialata 68), Mealamu (Flynn 66), Tialata (Afoa 45), Thorn, Williams, Kaino, McCaw (capt), So'oialo
(K Read 71)
Replacements not used Boric, Reid, Toeava
Tries Penalty, Thorn, Nonu Cons Carter 2 Pen Carter
Referee Mark Lawrence (SA)
