McKenzie makes hay as Ireland pay high price for poor discipline
Sometimes it is all about the numbers. On a greasy night at the Aviva Stadium, Ireland gave away 13 penalties to New Zealand’s five. In that scenario the player of the match award was always up for grabs if outhalf Damian McKenzie could land enough of them to give his team the edge, and he did.
Ireland briefly took the lead after Josh van der Flier touched down on 44 minutes and Jack Crowley converted to make it 13-9, but McKenzie’s three penalties in quick succession followed by Will Jordan’s try sealed the victory. Penalties killed Ireland and that came largely from the way the All Blacks kept the pressure heavy and forced Irish players to make damaging decisions. Of the 13 penalties given, McKenzie kicked six.
Healy homing in on O’Driscoll’s cap mark
Irish loosehead prop Cian Healy came on after 73 minutes against the All Blacks for Irish cap number 132. That is just one off the record number of Irish matches that centre and captain Brian O’Driscoll set before he retired from playing for Ireland in 2014.
The chances are that the Irish frontrow will draw level with and beat O’Driscoll’s record before the Autumn Nations Series has finished. Records are made to be broken and between the two players O’Driscoll gave 15 years of his career playing with Ireland with 37-year-old Healy, first capped for Ireland in 2009, now also in his 15th year as an international player. Healy made his international debut under coach Declan Kidney in a Test match against Australia at Croke Park.
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Friday night lights not so bright for travelling fans
The Olympic Games often stage events at odd times. But they had 204 nations competing in Paris last summer. To broadcast sport at the best time for preferred markets they must be staged early in the morning and late at night. It was ever thus. But is it really spectator friendly when Ireland’s game against the All Blacks begins at 8.10pm on a Friday night if you live in Cork or Belfast.
Rugby games are generally two hours long so an 8.10pm start means a 10.10pm finish. Getting out of a crowded stadium to a car parked a distance away means that fans are lucky if they are switching on the ignition for a journey of several hours at 11.0pm. Instead, they could try staying in Dublin for the night on a day when the All Blacks and 50,000 people are in town. Add that cost to the €140 paid for a stand ticket and you might come around to thinking that an earlier start for the punter makes more sense.
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All Blacks shut down Ireland’s driving maul at source
At one of Ireland’s attacking lineouts five metres out the ball was secured and the players quickly formed a driving maul. It is one of Ireland’s most effective ways of scoring tries, normally with the injured Dan Sheehan peeling off the back and using his leg speed and power to shake off tackles and drive for the line.
It didn’t happen once in the game on Friday night and in one of the lineouts during the first half, Ireland secured possession and pushed. Nothing happened. The driving maul stayed rock solid as the All Blacks locked in and stopped the Irish maul from moving forward from the beginning. In the end Jamison Gibson-Park had to take the ball out and move it across the pitch. Rarely have teams been able to dominate the Irish driving maul at source off lineout ball in the way New Zealand were able to do.
Why was Ireland’s bench pressed into action so late
Eddie Jones insisted on calling them the finishers, the bench players. In the modern game they are expected to come on and make a positive impact by changing up the way the game is being played, by bringing energy or introducing a different style to the player coming off.
Conor Murray was a case in point against New Zealand. He plays the scrumhalf position differently to Gibson-Park. The question is why bring him on with just seven minutes remaining in normal time. Both Murray and Healy came into the match on 73 minutes with Peter O’Mahony and Jamie Osborne arriving on 69 minutes. Seven minutes play for one group and 11 for the other doesn’t seem like much time to make an impact. For Healy, Murray and O’Mahony the short runs were hardly to give them experience.
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