Two tries provide a little bit of belief

One could feel only sympathy for coach Brian Ashton as the assembled media attempted to elicit why Ireland had offered up, at face value, another of the traditional 30minute cameos of excellence, to then disappear without trace.

What could the Irish coach say? That several of the team failed to achieve the personal goals that had been outlined before the match, that gambling in playing two, ostensibly inside centres, backfired, that a couple of the new caps froze against world rugby's elite, that the three pre-Christmas internationals should have been graded in ascending order of difficulty: there was to be no Spanish Inquisition, Irish style.

Firstly, this was not a traditional Irish performance: defeat owed more to the ability of the All Blacks to maintain a crushing intensity, a sustained level of excellence, once they had redefined the parameters in which they needed to play, than it did to Irish shortcomings.

Ashton ventured: "I thought that we competed pretty well for the first 30 minutes. We had an unfortunate spell 10 minutes before halftime and in the second half the first couple of times that we got possession, once we kicked it down Christian Cullen's throat, not the wisest move.

"Then a couple of our players got tackled off the field inside our own 22 and for 15 minutes after that I don't remember us putting a finger on the ball. That took the game totally out of reach and just shows, against sides of this calibre, you have to be switched on the full 80 minutes.

"The game can slide away from you so very, very quickly with a side of their attacking potential."

The Irish coach refused to rise to the accusation that there was only ever one likely outcome when choosing a team containing five new caps. "We picked a side that had been on form in Ireland, simple as that." When Ashton's interrogator ventured that it was still very inexperienced the Irish coach replied: "Not, now it's not." No sacrificial lambs today please.

Ashton was more upbeat when asked to articulate the positive aspects to Ireland's display. "I thought that we competed very well throughout, apart from the last five to 10 minutes in the first half and the first 20 in the second.

"The encouraging thing from a competitive point of view is that I suspect that in the last 15 minutes we spent more than half of that in and around the New Zealand 22. I cast my mind back to last season, I'm not sure that Irish sides would have lasted physically to stay in a game to that extent.

"I felt that in the first half what was encouraging was the way in which we put little bits of play together and scored two tries. Not a lot of other sides have scored two tries in Test matches against the All Blacks this season. It will give players a little bit of belief.["]

Ashton pointed out that the New Zealanders had changed the emphasis of attack, resorting to the power of dynamism of their pack to push Ireland onto the back foot. He had stated prior to the match that this (the present All Blacks side) was the best team he had ever seen. Nothing had changed come 4.30pm on Saturday.

"For the first 25 minutes of the second half one could see all the attributes that this side has got, power, vision, footballers all over the field, their ability to recycle ball. They play with a remarkable patience and control, just waiting for the defence to run out of numbers. They are relentless, powerful men, very dynamic."

The final, humorous comment on an ultimately trying day for the Irish should perhaps be left to Wasps centre Rob Henderson: "We would have settled for 38 minutes and a half-time break of 42 minutes."