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Ireland’s quarter-final curse continues as All Blacks move on
By PA
Ireland’s World Cup dream was crushed as their quarter-final curse continued with a heartbreaking 28-24 defeat to New Zealand in Paris.
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Andy Farrell’s class of 2023 were bidding to make history by becoming the first Irish team to reach the last four of the tournament.
But they trailed for most of a thrilling contest at Stade de France and were unable to mastermind a stunning comeback as the formidable All Blacks progressed to a semi-final showdown with Argentina.
Scores from native Kiwis Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park and a penalty try helped keep Ireland within touching distance for the duration of a tense encounter.
However, three-time champions New Zealand underlined their rugby pedigree, with Leicester Fainga’anuku, Ardie Savea and Will Jordan each crossing to pave the way for a nail-biting triumph.
Eight points from the boot of Jordie Barrett and five from Richie Mo’unga helped the All Blacks over the line as they overcame yellow cards for Aaron Smith and Codie Taylor.
A devastating defeat in Saint-Denis halted Ireland’s remarkable winning run at 17 matches, while signalling the end of the career of veteran captain Johnny Sexton, who kicked seven points but missed a crucial penalty.
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Ireland came into a mouthwatering contest in the unfamiliar position of being marginal favourites.
Following a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of Friday’s school attack in the northern French city of Arras, Ireland’s raucous travelling fans drowned out the Haka with a rousing rendition of the Fields of Athenry.
Yet New Zealand shrugged off the hostility and a few nervy mistakes in the opening minutes to lead through early penalties from Mo’unga and Barrett.
Ireland had repelled 30 phases in the build up to the first of those kicks but, despite plenty of possession, were struggling to fully find their usual attacking fluidity.
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Ian Foster’s men had no such issues and duly increased their lead when wing Fainga’anuku – playing instead of Mark Telea, who was dropped for a disciplinary breach – exchanged passes with Rieko Ioane to finish a flowing team move on the left.
Ireland were quickly staring down the barrel of another last-eight exit to add to seven previous ones.
A routine Sexton penalty eventually got them up and running on the scoreboard before Aki superbly evaded five failed tackles to touch down and significantly cut the deficit against the country of his birth.
However, as the tide threatened to turn, the All Blacks were not about to roll over.
With five minutes of the half remaining, Savea dived over on the right to shift the momentum of a helter-skelter encounter back in favour of the southern hemisphere side.
Resilience is a major facet of Farrell’s Ireland and they emerged from an intense opening period just a single point behind.
In the aftermath of Smith’s temporary departure due to a deliberate knock-on, Gibson-Park brilliantly wriggled over from a line-out maul and Sexton again added the extras to leave the contest tantalisingly poised.
New Zealand were doing a decent job of keeping Ireland at arm’s length.
They again stretched the scoreboard in the 54th minute when the impressive Mo’unga exploited a gap between Josh Van Der Flier and Dan Sheehan following a line-out to burst forward and send the jet-heeled Jordan darting for the right corner for a 25-17 advantage.
Ireland suffered another setback when Sexton skewed wide with a three-point attempt at the posts. However, five minutes they were celebrating being awarded a penalty try as Taylor collapsed a maul and was sin-binned.
Barrett missed a penalty but landed another to keep the scoreboard ticking over for the All Blacks going into the anxious final stages.
Ireland desperately pushed for a late twist but ultimately ran out of steam to suffer a first defeat since the opening match of last summer’s stunning Test series victory in New Zealand, leaving a distraught Sexton heading for retirement.
yellow cards are a blight on the game, accidental head clashes, smiths finger tip knock on are not worthy of losing a player for ten minutes, penaltys should be enough
I borrowed this from our (south-africa’s) cricket team:
Why did the Irish rugby team eat in pairs in quater final week?
So that one can help when the other one chokes!
Great win All-Blacks, what a fight. 🍻💪
Hubris. Ireland started to believe the myth that they were invincible.
Didn’t have the forwards to match the ABs.
Four more years.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Ireland didn't fall victim to acurse. Ffs. Etc.
Where is turlough with all those declarations that ireland would wipe the floor. Multiple irish pundits claiming not a single ab would make the irish side including bench.
Scrum… Abs dominated
lineout…. Abs won
Breakdown… abs dominated.
Turnovers. Abs
Gainline. Abs
The only thing that kept it close was the cards let's be honest.
It was funny watching ireland team and pundits going through EXACTLY the same mental arc as last ab teams that had big dominance between wcs and got knocked out, while the abs sat quietly and waited then crushed them when the pressure moment arrived.
Just as satisfying as last time, but this time it also retired grubs sexton and mahony. Good job.
Definitely one of canes best games good to see him up the ante with line breaks and inspirational tackles. My heart's still thumping after that final eight minutes.
Argentina next up! Emotional, Fiery, Spoiling? Red cards? Yellow cards? Let’s hope AB’s don’t get sucked into their “spoiling play”
What a message was sent today to everyone.
Hey we had a “Bad” day and we still won! It doesn’t matter how good your “Mental Game” is developed, it’s hard not to try and shrug that off All Black performance.
Have we peaked to soon? We had to get to that “Peak” today to win the game and continue.
We have always had the “Weapons” I think we all know that yet to see them unleash them against the number 1 ranked team was indeed a “Gift from the rugby Gods”
Our whole “pack” stood up and shocked the “Irish” and everyone who watched that game.
It’s 1.39 pm and I have watched it again. Amazing!
What a setup with that ending. That was just great theater with Ireland in their favourite position playing with the ball, testing and pressuring their opponents D. It was going to be destiny if their ball playing was going to take them to unprecedented heights by scoring a try late to beat the All Blacks.
It wasn’t to be. I wouldn’t give up on their game though, perhaps if they play more Southern Hemisphere teams they’ll learn how to make their attack work in the pressure cooker games 😁
I go back to their SA game where they didn’t try to play. Would the choose to play that game differently if they had it again, or this game? Perhaps this game always was just evens, and they played it perfectly?
It was an extraordinary game that the ABs did so well to win. Ireland were hugely impressive but looked to me to be running out of gas with about 20 to go. Not surprising given the workload the starters have carried to get to the 1/4.