We showed what the All Black jersey means to us

Ireland weren’t helped at all by the loss of three key players in the opening half hour.

Up against 14 men, Ireland had their guests on the rack for a spell of several minutes before winning a penalty which Heaslip wanted kicked to touch but skipper Rory Best called for the kick to posts and Jackson popped it over.

Aaron Smith and Malakai Fekitoa both spent time in the bin, the latter for a high tackle, while openside Sam Cane was spared for a crunching effort on Robbie Henshaw.

Exceptional offloading from Barrett and replacement TJ Perenara enabled Fekitoa to dab down his second of the night in a clinical move, ensuring there was no repeat of their Chicago defeat.

Smarting after their sub-par showing two weeks ago, the All Blacks roared out of the blocks early, controlling the opening phases and pushing their noses in front.

“Obviously the discipline has got to improve”.

“The Rob Henshaw tackle was a head clash”.

While they were on the back foot for much of the second half, this set-piece guaranteed Steve Hansen’s side some clean possession, which they utilised to perfection.

The All Blacks’ reaction to a loss can be gauged by the seven years since any one team beat them back to back.

“He just needs to have a look at that”.

The Hurricanes playmaker returned to the free-flowing running game that netted him World Rugby’s Player of the Year gong. Is that what they normally do on a Friday before a test match?

The world champs showed how it’s done with some clinical play while giving a masterclass in the dark arts of the game. It’s a tough game to ref. He said that his players were aware of the mistakes that had cost them in Chicago and are looking to put those right.

He replied: “You always want the ref to be consistent so let’s leave it at that”.

Hansen’s Ireland counterpart and fellow Kiwi Joe Schmidt dismissed any talk that his side were the favourites.

“The attitude was good”.

“So when you don’t get a result after you pour on the pressure and drop a couple of balls close to the line and have a couple of our guys break the line but be held up it is very frustrating”.

Pshycoligically a lot of the “aura” that surrounded New Zealand on previous trips to Dublin will have washed away, with Ireland finally putting the 2013 defeat behind them in Chicago.

“Sometimes Irish teams in the past may have been guilty of getting up for one game, putting in a massive performance and not turning up the following week”. They went to Rome, shuffled their pack, and handed Conor O’Shea’s Italians a pasting.

“As everyone knows we lost a lot of experience after the World Cup. Today, we answered some questions about our team’s character”.

“I think there is a willingness and a desire to be better all the time when you hear them talking. that’s the sign of a good team that is going places”, said Read. Ireland, England and France are good sides. Wales on their day cab hurt you and Scotland have already shown what they can do. “I still think we are confident in what we do but there’s also a nice nervousness about us”. I don’t think there was any malice in it.