Kiwis keep clean sheet against Irish

Late surge sees the All Blacks home

New Zealand retained their clean sheet against Ireland, recording a 34-23 victory at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday.  It was a late surge, 13 points in the last 10 minutes, which saw the All Blacks home in this tightly contested encounter.

The Kiwis outscored the Irish by three tries to two to ensure they retain the record of having never lost to the men from the Emerald Isle.

It wasn't the most convincing of wins, but as captain Richie McCaw said afterwards, the All Blacks stuck at it after conceded an early lead and in the end got through.

But what a great match!  What drama, what tension, what skill!  It was wonderful entertainment and it nearly contained an upset.  Upsets are always fun if you are not the people being upset.

June is bursting out all over in rugby Tests.  If this is the sunburst that is to come it is going to be a wonderful June.

If you had watched just the first eight minutes of the match, you would have left it thinking it was a runaway victory for New Zealand.  If you had next tuned in at half-time you would have been in shocked disbelief when you saw that Ireland were leading 16-8.

It took the All Blacks just 43 seconds to get a try.  And the All Blacks kept on running and running.  Ma'a Nonu had two good runs, Luke McAlister missed and easy penalty.  And Mils Muliaina ran with effect at every opportunity.

It was Muliaina who set up that 43-second try.

Ronan O'Gara kicked off deep and Keven Mealamu caught and drove.  McAlister went left, tackled he popped the ball to new cap Clarke Dermody, going left.  Back the ball came to Muliaina going right.  He was standing, he shimmied, he accelerated and he was clean past O'Gara.  Aaron Mauger was up to take the pass and looked likely to score but his pace seemed to leave him and so he transferred to Doug Howlett who headed at an angle for the corner where he just beat young Andrew Trimble for a try in the corner.  5-0.

The pace kept cracking on.  The first stoppage, for a line-out, came after two and a half minutes, the first penalty after four minutes and the first scrum after six and a half minutes.

Initially Ireland kicked more -- but then they had O'Gara -- but it was kicking that was a major part of the build-up for Ireland's shock try.

First Mauger kicked out on the full.  Then McAlister kicked out on the full.  At the subsequent line-out Greg Rawlinson, making his test debut, slapped the ball back and left Byron Kelleher to clean-up.  Kelleher was taken clean into touch and three bits of sloppy play gave Ireland a line-out well inside the All Blacks' 22.

Ireland won the line-out and in conventional fashion the ball went from Peter Stringer to Ronan O'Gara, to Gordon D'Arcy, to Brian O'Driscoll -- and the playing genius went on a slight arc beyond Nonu and inside Joe Rokocoko and round for a try at the posts.  It was simply beautiful.  O'Gara converted and Ireland went into a dream-like 7-5 lead after just less than 10 minutes.

When McAlister was penalised for a dubiously ruled high tackle, O'Gara made it 10-5 after 11 minutes.

Were the Irish to do what the All Blacks had been predicted to do and run away with the match?

Penalties played a large part in the game.  The count went 11-7 against Ireland, but there were three telling ones by loose forwards which punished the brave Irish.

The first happened in the first half when Neil Best, Ireland's only non-Munster forward, went off-side, clattering into Kelleher, the incident which saw Kelleher wobbling off to be replaced by Jimmy Cowan.  McAlister goaled the penalty to make the score 10-8 after 20 minutes.

New Zealand ran from near their own line and charged downfield.  Ireland attempted to do in like manner, but O'Driscoll knocked on a rolling past from O'Gara and showed a touch of paddy in disapproving of his experienced fly-half's recklessness.

That gave New Zealand good attacking opportunity, but one of the characteristics of 70 minutes of the match was the decisive tackling of the proud Irish.  Indeed, Ireland were next to score and there was irony in the penalty as it was at a scrum.

As New Zealand battled in the line-outs, so Ireland battled in the scrum -- where Marcus Horan was vulnerable.  At this scrum Clarke Dermody was penalised for pulling back and down, and O'Gara made the score 13-8.

The game rattled on till, on the stroke of half-time, Richie McCaw was penalised for clinging on to the tackled player, and O'Gara made it 16-8 at the break.

Pinch me, Ireland are ahead!  Not only that, they have scored twice the number of points the All Blacks.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first-half -- with a splendid try by New Zealand, a try of delicious simplicity.

From a scrum on their left, McAlister slipped a short pass to Rokocoko coming off the left wing and going right.  Big Joe gave to Nonu who gave to Mauger who gave to Muliaina coming in from fullback and Muliaina had the strength to go over as two Irishmen clung to him.  This time McAlister converted, and the score was 16-15.

Ah, you felt as you sat back, this is the start of New Zealand road to rapid victory.  Ah, you were wrong.  Five minutes later the Irish were further ahead.

They came on in wave after wave of multiphased attack with Paul O'Connell and Shane Horgan prominent.  From far right they moved left till O'Connell was at the line.  Stringier got quick ball to O'Gara, who ran at the defence, brought two defenders onto himself and managed to get a clever pass to Trimble who ran round for the try which O'Gara converted.  23-15 with half an hour to play.

Flank David Wallace was penalised twice in three minutes -- once for collapsing a maul and once for staying onto the tackled player, and each time McAlister goaled the penalty.  That made it 23-21 with twenty minutes to go.

With 14 minutes to go, O'Gara missed a penalty attempt.  With 13 minutes to go Ireland were attacking with vigour when bad things happened.  A scrum became a penalty for dissent, and this seemed to break Irish hearts.

The All Blacks attacked through many, many phases even with Cowan down groggy.  Replacement Keith Gleeson was penalised for coming in at the side and McAlister put the All Blacks a point ahead at 24-23.  For over an hour Ireland had led.  But the last nine minutes counted most.

Behind a point, the spirited Irish looked for a winning try.  Geordan Murphy counter-attacked brilliantly from just outside his 22 and set O'Driscoll running.  They seemed to have put the Irish on the way to scoring a try when somehow McAlister intercepted a pass from O'Connell and the attack went New Zealand's way.  Trimble got back and saved bravely and the Irish won a defensive ruck.

Stringer, still searching for a winner, chipped.  The ball bounced awkwardly.  O'Connell got a hand to it but managed only to tip the ball into the path of steaming Nonu to thump off Stringer and feed replacement Troy Flavell.  The big lock celebrated his return to All Black duty after a five-year absence by surging over, hand aloft in triumph, for the try which sealed the match.  31-23 with six minutes left.

Those were not a good six minutes for Ireland.  O'Connell was penalised for holding on and it was 34-23 and Jerry Flannery was penalised and yellow-carded for a late shoulder-charge on Muliaina.

When the final whistle went the All Blacks were on the Irish line.

Man of the Match:  Mils Muliaina was great and so was Rodney So'oialo, and Carl Hayman made the Irish scrum a rickety thing.  Geordan Murphy had great moments for Ireland and so did Gordon D'Arcy, but the player of undoubted class and skill was Brian O'Driscoll of Ireland.

Moment of the Match:  All of the tries were exciting but perhaps it was Ireland's first one that was the real moment, when they struck from a line-out and Brian O'Driscoll swept round for the try that told the world:  "This is going to be great match."

Villain of the Match:  Jerry Flannery is the official one with his yellow card for petulant stupidity, but Marcus Horan with boots working on Rodney So'oialo's mop of hair was an uglier sight.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Howlett, Muliaina, Flavell
Cons:  McAlister 2
Pens:  McAlister 5

For Ireland:
Tries:  O'Dricoll, Trimble
Cons:  O'Gara 2
Pens:  O'Gara 3

Yellow card(s):  Flannery (Ireland) -- late tackle, 79

The teams:

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Ma'a Nonu, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Luke McAlister, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Rodney So'oialo, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Marty Holah, 5 Greg Rawlinson, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Clarke Dermody.
Replacements:  16 Anton Oliver, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Troy Flavell, 19 Jerome Kaino, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 David Hill, 22 Scott Hamilton.

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 David Wallace, 6 Neil Best, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements:  16 Rory Best, 17 Bryan Young, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 19 Keith Gleeson, 20 Isaac Boss, 21 Denis Hickie, 22 Girvan Dempsey.

Referee:  Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges:  Matt Goddard (Australia), George Ayoub (Australia)
Television match official:  Brett Bowden (Australia)
Assessor:  Stuart Beissel (New Zealand)