Ireland's prospects of recording their first victory over New Zealand in 23 attempts were already remote when their Lions' No 8, Jamie Heaslip, was sent off after 15 minutes for twice kneeing Richie McCaw, who was killing the ball on his own line, in the head. It quickly went from red to all black for the men in green, even if they did rally after trailing by 31 points at the interval.
Ireland were 10-0 down when Heaslip, a player not known for indiscipline, lost control after Gordon D'Arcy had been held up on the New Zealand line. New Zealand are widely regarded as slow starters to an international campaign and, beset by injuries, they were expected to struggle against the 2009 Six Nations champions, but judgment on them was deferred.
It does not matter what sort of fettle the All Blacks are in, the cardinal rule against them is always to keep mistakes to a minimum and Ireland were undone by their own sloppiness. New Zealand took the lead with a Dan Carter penalty after six minutes after Ronan O'Gara had missed a kick to touch from a penalty. Conrad Smith scored the opening try of the game shortly afterwards, when D'Arcy's knock-on on the home 22 allowed Smith to profit from a swift counterattack, chasing his own kick ahead and exploiting a bounce that beat Rob Kearney.
No sooner had Heaslip departed than O'Gara wasted another penalty by missing touch and the flanker Kieran Read finished off a series of drives after running the ball back. Carter's conversion took him past 1,000 points in international rugby, the fourth player to do so after Neil Jenkins, Diego Domínguez and Jonny Wilkinson. The game was effectively over without New Zealand having to depress their clutch.
Brian O'Driscoll had recovered from an attack of vertigo to lead Ireland, but two other Hitchcock films came to mind as the All Blacks eclipsed the 63 points they recorded against the Irish in 1997: Murder! and Rope. If playing with 14 men was a handicap, the number was reduced to 13 after 24 minutes when O'Gara was sent to the sin-bin for tackling Cory Jane off the ball as the wing chased a kick to the visitors' line.
By the time O'Gara returned, Ireland were 38-0 behind, three tries in eight minutes threatening to turn a romp into a rout. The prop Ben Franks claimed the first and the scrum-half Jimmy Cowan scored the other two, the second after Carter had made a gliding break in his own half, spotting Mick O'Driscoll in the midfield and beating the second row for pace.
Mick O'Driscoll limped off with a hamstring strain and his replacement, Dan Tuohy, scored Ireland's opening try 30 seconds after coming on. But the second half started with Cian Healy missing a pass near the New Zealand 22 and McCaw combining with Carter and Jane for Smith to score his second try. When Sam Whitelock made it 52-7, 24 seconds after replacing Brad Thorn,, a century of points looked on, but New Zealand took off Carter and Ireland responded with two quick tries, the first from Brian O'Driscoll and the second from Tommy Bowe after McCaw threw a poor pass in front of his own posts.
The game had by now broken up, lacking any sort of structure, and Ireland kept giving the ball to the menacing Israel Dagg. There were three tries in the final quarter, but it should have been four: Andrew Trimble, one of Ireland's few stand-out players, lost control of the ball as he slid to the line on a surface that had had to cope with 30 centimetres of rain in the week leading up to the game.
Ireland have little time to regroup before they face the Maori on Friday, ahead of a Test against Australia in Brisbane the following week. One bonus yesterday was the performance of the prop, Tony Buckley, a late replacement for the ill John Hayes. His scrummaging may not have been particularly effective, but he and Trimble were the only Irish players able to match New Zealand's ability to achieve continuity by off-loading in the tackle and the tight-head made a number of thumping tackles.
New Zealand were looking ahead to their two-Test series against Wales long before the end. "We became a bit easy and leaked a few," said McCaw. The Ireland coach Declan Kidney was left to reflect on what he described as a horror show, seeing light coming in the second-half comeback, even if it was through a torn curtain.
NEW ZEALAND Dagg; Jane (Guildford, 62), Smith, Stanley, Rokocoko; Carter (Cruden, 53), Cowan (Weepu, h-t); B Franks (Tialata, 52), Mealamu (De Malmanche, 61), O Franks, Thorn (Whitelock, 49), Boric, Kaino (Vito, 37), McCaw (capt), Read.
Tries Smith 2, Cowan 2, Whitelock 2, Read, B Franks, Tialata Cons Carter 7, Weepu 2. Pen Carter
IRELAND Kearney (Murphy, 68); Bowe, B O'Driscoll (capt), D'Arcy, Trimble; O'Gara (Sexton, 68), O'Leary (Reddan, 68); Healy (Court, 76), Cronin (Fogarty, 76), Buckley, O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll (Tuohy, 35), Muldoon (Jennings, 31), Wallace, Heaslip
Tries Tuohy, B O'Driscoll, Bowe, D'Arcy Cons O'Gara 3, Sexton
Referee Wayne Barnes (Eng) Attendance 25,000
