“What a f*****g liberty”, as Catherine Tate would have said. Ireland travel halfway round the world to give the All Blacks their first match since being dumped out of the Rugby World Cup and the New Zealand public can’t even be bothered to turn out for the match.
Wellington just happens to be my favourite city in New Zealand, having been there with the Lions in 2005. It is New Zealand’s capital city and is blessed with a beautiful harbour and, as all of you Hobbit nerds will know, much of the filming for the Rings epic was carried out in the surrounding area. It is yet another city that has its stadium, the Westpac, in the centre so it was particularly disappointing that if was far from full. I don’t care if it was a bit cold and wet, these people have no respect!
Enough of the pleasantries let’s get on to the match!
Ireland kicked off and immediately put New Zealand under pressure. However, things did not look like going their way when O’Connell was turned over in the loose when he took the ball into contact and he was not the only Irish player who looked out of sorts early on. Bowe and Horgan in particular looked shaky. Bowe, to his credit quickly snapped out of it but Horgan had one of his worst games for Ireland and lets hope it was his last!
Early New Zealand pressure almost lead to try after 5 minutes impressive driving by the NZ pack. They drove into the Irish 22 before unleashing the backs but Ma’a Nonu knocked on under pressure from Paddy Wallace and David Wallace intercepted and took the play into the NZ half. Ireland ran a quick penalty and only the corner flag stopped Bowe from opening the scoring. Ireland were awarded another penalty for NZ handling on the ground and O’Gara makes it 3 nil.
Unfortunately it did not take NZ long to hit back. O’Connell did well to steal a NZ lineout and Horan drives on but is stripped of the ball quicker than a working girl could drop her pants. The he ball is passed to Conrad Smiths who slips past O’Driscoll unmolested and releases Sitiveni Sivivatu to score in the corner. NZ 5-3 Ireland.
After a poor restart by NZ Ireland power into their 22. The forwards nearly hand possession back to NZ but the ball breaks to Reddan who darts down the blind side with O’Gara and Paddy Wallace. Wallace rounds Ali Williams and crashes inside Sivivatu to score. NZ 5-8 Ireland.
After some ariel ping pong Ireland find themselves under pressure in their own 22 and David Wallace concedes three points by coming in from the side.
NZ 8-8 Ireland
The second half starts brightly enough with both sides swapping penalties leaving the score NZ 11-11 Ireland. The Irish lineout is a shambles, losing at least four of their own in the first half, si it is no surprise to see Rory Best replacing in ineffective Flannery after 51 mins.
Quite often in rugby you can pin point one particular moment when the game was won or lost and in the 58th minute Marcus Horan lost it for Ireland. Ireland had secured turnover ball when Horan throws a handbag at an All Black on the ground and concedes a penalty which Carter duly converts. NZ 14-11 Ireland.
You could see the disappointment on the Irish players faces and two minutes later O’Gara reverts to type and misses a simple bread and butter tackle on Carter, who dances up the pitch and a couple of phases later Nonu slides over the line. NZ 21 – 11 Ireland.
Ireland keep pressing and could have cut the deficit but for O’Gara’s unreliable boot. So a 10 point loss for Ireland against a team who did not look like the All Blacks of old. You can’t help thinking this was a game lost when it could so easily have been won but, if you don’t win your own lineout you aren’t going to win many matches.
Of the Ulster boys, Paddy did not look out of place and took his try very well, Tommy after a shaky start settled down and Rory looked what he is – Ireland’s number one hooker. With Stephen Ferris now with the senior squad I would like to see him start for Heaslip next week and Boss must be in with a chance having stared against the Barbarians last week.
New Zealand: M Muliaina,A Tuitavake,C Smith,M Nonu,S Sivivatu,D Carter,A Ellis,J Kaino,R McCaw,R So’oialo,A Williams,B Thorn, Afoa,A Hore,N Tialata.
Replacements: K Mealamu,J Schwalger,A Boric,A Thomson,J Cowan,S Donald,L MacDonald.
Ireland: R Kearney, S Horgan,B O’Driscoll,P Wallace,T Bowe,R O’Gara,E Reddan,J Heaslip,D Wallace, D Leamy,D O’Callaghan,P O’Connell,J Hayes,J Flannery, M Horan.
Replacements: G Dempsey,G Murphy,P Stringer,S Jennings, M O’Driscoll, T Buckley, R Best.
Referee: Chris White (England)
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