One of the confounding aspects of how the last 20 minutes unfolded in Soldier Field on Saturday was its fever dream quality. It felt like watching an Irish team of the past.
The drooped Irish shoulders, the hands on hips, the negative body language as New Zealand ran in three late tries. It looked like a screen shot from decades ago, long before Irish management bought into the notion that player loads, physical strength and fitness relate to mental acuity and are just as important elements to winning matches as tactics and ability.
It was a throwback to the days when fans could set their watches by the moment Test matches began to crumble in front of their eyes. Usually, those fractures began to appear in the last 20 minutes.
It was expected to happen, especially against the stronger nations. Back then, it was an aspect of Irish team character to shake any side up for much of the match but rarely sustain that level and win the match.
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New Zealand was a case in point, with close-but-no-cigar moments until 2016.
No question, the current players are fitter, stronger and have long ago kicked off the flaw of caving at the end of the match. Which makes the capitulation on Saturday so bewildering.
But that’s exactly what happened and why it should occupy Andy Farrell’s thinking over the coming days and weeks.
New Zealand replacements Tamaiti Williams and Wallace Sititi scored tries in the 62nd and 67th minutes, with scrumhalf Cam Roigard adding another on 77 minutes in their scorched-earth phase of the game.
Three tries in 15 minutes against a New Zealand team that was not firing was a more than disappointing way to end the game for Ireland.
Williams’s score arrived just after Garry Ringrose had shot up and hit Beauden Barrett with a tackle that didn’t stick and the players bounced off each other.
French referee Pierre Brousset stopped play to have a closer look to see if there had been head contact, which there was not. No foul play but an All Black penalty was awarded.
The tap-and-go from five yards out from hooker Codie Taylor was all muscle and grunt, but New Zealand got in at the second phase as Williams slid in under Irish players.
Having become used to bodies firing out hard to protect the Irish line, the New Zealand try looked all too easily worked.
Five minutes later, after a strong attacking counter from Ireland, a scrum was won on the New Zealand five-metre line. But the All Blacks broke out, setting up phases and began running a counterattack.
[ Five things we learned from Ireland’s 26-13 defeat to New ZealandOpens in new window ]
Ringrose sprinted out of the Irish line but was sidestepped, as was James Lowe who was coming up hard on his man.
That allowed replacement Damian McKenzie the chance to break on the right with space in front of him. He found Sititi inside, who ran in untouched by the Ireland defence, Caelan Doris on his shoulder just as he crossed. New Zealand went 19-13 ahead with the conversion.
Roigard’s score was the most illuminating moment of the poor Irish finish.
The scrumhalf was surrounded by Irish bodies at a New Zealand scrum on the Irish five-metre line. First, he cut inside replacement scrumhalf Craig Casey and the same move took out flanker Josh van der Flier, whose hands glanced off the All Black’s legs.
Doris, who was moving across, also got a hand to him but momentum was with Roigard who got over the line too easily.
Three Irish players were beaten in one move for 26-13 with less than four minutes remaining.
Switching off for a moment mentally, a lack of edge, a deflated, beaten mindset or rusty at test match level? Whatever it was, it’s a state they have not been in for some time. It is essential they identify it and stop the fever dreams from happening again.
