“This is a special team,” Irish manager Andy Farrell reflected amid jubilant scenes. “That’s probably the hardest thing in world rugby. We said it would be the start of our World Cup year, but, I don’t know, it’s probably a bit longer than that.” It is a testament to his upbeat, down-to-earth but clearly inspired leadership of Ireland that his thinking about this historic achievement was framed in the context of the next milestone. “It’s clear how much faith [we have] and it starts with the main man, Fuzz,” said Ireland captain Jonny Sexton. “It’s all credit to him, really.” For all of Farrell’s actions up front, it was those on the field who needed to take notice in the moment, and for a third week on the bounce Ireland fell early. Josh van der Flier’s flop from a lineout drive after three minutes set the tone for a first-half highlight reel of everything good for Ireland. Organized and dynamic multi-phase attack, combined with strength and guile in difficult situations, limited New Zealand to a Jordie Barrett penalty and set up a brace of further tries before the break. The first came from a deliciously misplaced pass that found Hugo Keenan to tap wide left, before two quick phases behind a scrum in the All Blacks’ 22 allowed Bundee Aki to feed Robbie Henshaw, who was left unopposed. Additional conversions by Sexton allowed the captain to lead his side from the field 22-3 up. As disjointed and jittery as the home side were in the opening 40, that quickly came to an end early in the second, particularly under the boot of Ardie Savea. The New Zealand No 8 took it upon himself to drag his side back into the match by forcing through two Irish tacklers to open his side’s try account, and then stepped into Ireland’s analysis to win a penalty. Robbie Henshaw dives to score. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile/Getty Images Speaking of penalties, a pivotal moment appeared to arrive on 50 minutes as Andrew Porter clashed heads in his tackle on Brodie Retallick. At first glance it looked similar to the incident that saw Angus Ta’avao see red last week, but Wayne Barnes deemed Porter’s contact less dominant and only drew a yellow. Undeterred by any sense of injustice, the All Blacks scored within a minute, Akira Ioane with his first international try after a powerful run cleared weak tackles from Dan Sheehan and Van der Flier. Sexton extended the lead from the tee before Savea – a one-man cavalry charge – popped a smart pass for winger Will Jordan to sprint 80 meters to touch down. With 20 minutes to go and three points adrift, the next score was crucial. Fresh off the court, Rob Herring calmly hit his line jumper before breaking away from the back of the pencil and driving through an army of defenders to stretch to the line. Rob Herring reaches out to score. Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images The 10-point cushion did little to assuage the sense of dread as New Zealand dominated the closing minutes. With that, Tadhg Beirne decided Savea would not get the individual plaudits in the end, with the Munster lock making three decisive defensive interventions at the breakdown. Each killed off an ominous All Black attack. An incredible game-winning effort. As the clock ticked down to the final minute, Peter O’Mahony was already in tears – the magnitude of the achievement set in. In the end, he wasn’t the only one. “I bet we’ve got four million in the house for breakfast, probably watching us,” Sexton said. “We talk about them all the time, we want to make them proud and we certainly did.” The Breakdown: sign up and receive our weekly rugby union email. “This has never been done before,” O’Mahony added. “It’s something I never thought was possible as a young person, but now the young people back home will know that it can be done.” After 100 years of effort, this group of Ireland has introduced a step change in the art of the loud.
