Ireland v All Blacks: Winners and losers as Scott Robertson’s side show ‘hallmarks’ of ‘great’ New Zealand teams while ‘livid’ Andy Farrell set for ‘brutal review’
Scott Robertson and Andy Farrell talking ahead of Ireland v All Blacks clash.
Following a physical Test match at the Aviva Stadium between Ireland and the All Blacks, we pick out our winners and losers from Friday’s clash.
Scott Robertson’s side continued their northern hemisphere tour by claiming a 23-13 triumph over Andy Farrell’s men in Dublin.
Will Jordan’s try and 18 points from Damian McKenzie helped New Zealand to their fifth successive victory as they built on the success against England last weekend.
Without further ado, here are our winners and losers from the game.
Winners
Damian McKenzie
It is fair to say 2024 has not gone smoothly for the fly-half. He started the All Blacks’ first eight games of the season but failed to really convince. He was then dropped for Beauden Barrett, who showed how a top level fly-half should perform, but McKenzie seems to have learned from the experienced playmaker.
While the Chiefs star still has plenty of growth left in his game, his decision-making was so much better as he played straighter to the line, which did not cramp his outside backs. The 29-year-old also kicked superbly, both out of hand and off the tee, as the visitors dominated the final half-hour.
Josh van der Flier
The standout performer for Ireland and by some distance. He worked tirelessly in every single facet of the game and simply had a stormer, reaching a level that unfortunately his teammates did not meet.
Van der Flier scored his team’s only try of the match and did so with a lovely angle to just about barge over the line, while he also produced moments that threatened a comeback in the latter stages including a brilliant rip.
It was a performance dominated by sheer bloody mindlessness to beat the All Blacks but he was nigh on alone in his efforts.
Asafo Aumua
Everyone’s known about the hooker’s athletic talents but there has been doubts about his work ethic and set-piece quality, but Friday’s performance laid some of those concerns to rest. Aumua will need to produce that type of display regularly, but he has now shown that he can do it at the top level.
It was a step up from his effort against England as he combined physicality in the loose with his work at the lineout and scrum. With Codie Taylor getting towards his mid-30s, Robertson could have found his successor.
Scott Robertson
Speaking of the head coach, this result and performance was just reward for sticking to his guns. Although they still have areas to improve on, getting the fundamentals in place is absolutely vital and the All Blacks, by and large, seem to have done that.
The set-piece is functioning well, the kicking game is getting better and their aerial work has been very impressive over the past two weeks. Robertson has also kept faith with the likes of McKenzie and that loyalty has been rewarded.
There is work to do in attack, which he no doubt knows, but the way they wore down the Irish before pouncing in the latter stages had hallmarks of some of the great All Blacks sides of the past.
Mack Hansen
Back for the first time since the Rugby World Cup and it was like he never left as he quickly shifted in-field to take up the playmaking duties and sprinted up and down the field like a Labrador on a sugar rush.
Hansen showed glimpses of the class that Ireland were missing while he was sidelined and why Farrell threw him straight back into the team despite the impressive performances of Calvin Nash.
He contested well in the air, but the All Blacks did get the edge there crucially. There is still plenty to come from the winger this November.
Andrew Porter
Rewind to the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final and much of Ireland’s demise was pinned on the performance at scrum time of Porter, who was pretty much blown off the park by Wayne Barnes for his scrummaging showing.
However, it was a different story on Friday as the Irishman managed to bend but not break when fronting up against Tyrel Lomax – who hammered him at the set-piece last year. Porter was clearly put under pressure by the brilliant All Blacks prop but managed to hold on and paint a good enough picture to stay on the right side of Nic Berry’s whistle, and once he was done in the set-piece, he went about doing his usual hard graft around the park.
Cam Roigard
The young Hurricane has barely played since suffering a nasty injury in March but Roigard has shown his immense talent over the past two weeks. Against both England and Ireland, he came on for a struggling Cortez Ratima and helped change the course of the match.
He was quicker at the base, accurate with his box-kicking and gave McKenzie much better ball to work with after coming onto the field. Robertson may be reluctant to switch the scrum-halves around given Roigard’s impact off the bench but, on form, the head coach must be considering it.
Losers
Cortez Ratima
The All Blacks rookie did not have his finest game at Twickenham last week and, unfortunately, he carried that form to Dublin. He was not assisted by the Irish at the breakdown, however, who made his life absolute hell.
His clearance kicks were decent and he got away with murder with his turnover in the first half, but those were the handful of standout moments in an otherwise frankly poor showing that started with an early box kick being charged down by prop Porter and it didn’t get much better from there.
He was indecisive and slow at the back of the ruck and a more experienced or savvy nine would have forced referee Berry’s hand with Irish bodies slow to roll. He enjoyed a cracking Rugby Championship campaign but hasn’t kicked on during the northern tour, and with France up next, Robertson’s hand may well be forced now.
There is no doubting his potential and he has proven his quality as an international nine, but for the second week in a row, he has failed to deliver. He was wasteful and threw several poor passes that gave the Irish defence the opportunity to stifle the already slow attack, forcing errors from the likes of McKenzie and his centres, who often had to check their runs before setting off.
He was replaced by Roigard early in the second half, a substitution that simply had to happen.
Tom O’Toole
The poor bloke. Given a rare chance with Tadhg Furlong sidelined for the game but he did not last long after replacing Finlay Bealham in the 57th minute. He returned to the sidelines just two minutes later after being knocked out in a tackle.
It was an unfortunate rugby incident and could not have happened at a worse time for the tighthead as he looked to make a claim for more minutes in an Ireland jersey.
Simon Easterby
A mixed bag for the Ireland defence coach as his charges managed to keep the All Blacks to just one try this time around but, frankly, he will be fuming at the team’s discipline.
For long periods of the game the All Blacks were quite happy to just hammer at the Irish defence by going through phase after phase after phase and the hosts just couldn’t disrupt their possession enough or force a turnover. And when they finally did just that, a penalty or knock-on would follow.
Tupou Vaa’i
The lock was one of the All Blacks’ better players during the Rugby Championship, suggesting that he was finally fulfilling his immense talent, but the northern tour has so far been a step backwards. Vaa’i kept his place despite a poor 40 minutes at Twickenham and at the Aviva Stadium he did not help his cause.
There was an improvement from last week but once again he didn’t impact the game physically, while the second-row gave away a couple of needless penalties. The outstanding Patrick Tuipulotu is very much hot on his heels.
Andy Farrell
The man has high standards and demands a lot of his team which has been hugely impactful in recent years, leading to their 19-game winning streak at the Aviva Stadium.
However, he will be quietly livid in public and will let his players know that the performance did not meet those lofty standards. Farrell claimed that the team had put that quarter-final defeat behind them but a win today would have eased that pain.
Farrell will call for a reset ahead of the game against Argentina next week but, make no mistake, Monday’s review is going to be brutal.
Mark Tele’a
Perhaps slightly harsh considering his outstanding performance last Saturday, but England seem to be the only side Tele’a has really starred against this year. His work rate is never in question while there was once again some good aerial work, but he turned over the ball on too many occasions, which could have proved costly.
Fortunately for the speedster, his team-mates prevented Ireland from being a threat on transition but he needs to tidy up those errors going forward. Robertson, to many people’s surprise, has not trusted the Blues man fully in 2024, dropping him in the Rugby Championship, and that is perhaps why.
Ciaran Frawley
From the clutch hero in Durban to a zero in Dublin, it was a nightmarish performance from Frawley in slippery conditions.
When he entered proceedings, Ireland trailed by just one point and Frawley was thrown into the mix to swing momentum, as he did in South Africa, but he just could not get to grips with the match or the ball in an error-strewn performance.
Farrell took a gamble with Frawley and other players who hadn’t played for some time before tonight and it did not pay off.
The rest of the bench
Ireland’s bench in July played a crucial role in knocking over the Springboks but they did not get that match-winning impact this time around.
O’Toole’s injury did not help one bit and that was through no fault of the prop but the others simply did not produce what was required of them.
READ MORE: All Blacks put lacklustre Ireland to the sword to bring 19-game home winning streak to a swift end
