All Blacks take revenge on Ireland with 21-9 Dublin win

New Zealand defended their tryline manfully and despite all of Ireland’s possession and territory, they lost the second half as well. This has been a side that has been coming together since the 6 Nations, whereas New Zealand are still needing to answer questions in the side, with the recent Rugby Championship triumph creating room for complacency.

The All Blacks saw their record-breaking streak of 18 consecutive wins broken by Ireland in Chicago a fortnight ago with a 40-29 defeat at Soldier Field.

Five tries in IL ensured the Irish painted Soldier Field green, at the end of a week which had seen the Chicago Cubs baseball team end a 108-year wait to win the World Series.

Simple it definitely wasn’t but New Zealand have proven that any talk of their demise was greatly exaggerated. They’ve done it by going after teams, especially in the second-half of games.

Ireland show just one change from the starting XV that claimed that maiden victory over New Zealand, with Sean O’Brien slotting in at openside flanker.

New Zealand have been wounded, and that makes them especially unsafe.

Without Whitelock and Retallick, Ireland bossed the mauls and disrupted lineouts, where Coles came under pressure on throw-ins.

Ireland coach Schmidt opted not to risk O’Brien in Chicago so the Leinster flanker instead played for 60 minutes in the 52-21 win over Canada in his first Ireland game since picking up his serious hamstring injury against France in Paris.

Ireland: 15. Rob Kearney 14.

Jamie Heaslip speaks to his team-mates after their defeat.

Cane came off limping with an ankle injury after colliding with Sexton, while New Zealand fullback Ben Smith suffered a broken finger.

Simon Zebo 6: His usual wriggly self with ball in hand, and saved a five-pointer with a tackle on Dagg. Robbie Henshaw’s match winning try was scored following pressure on Julian Savea from a Zebo kick. The difference between the sides though was the performance of Beauden Barrett and he scoops the Green and Gold Man of the Match. Kieran Read (c), 7.

Brodie Retallick 8: Worth his considerable weight in gold.

Replacements: 16. Codie Taylor, 17. “I think they probably should have won that game”.

“We’ve got that ability to fill that gap, it’s just giving them the opportunities to do so”, Hansen said.

“That’s what you always have to bring yourself back to and the only way to get to those dreams is to make sure that you win as numerous minutes along the way as possible”. Even when we think teams are beating Ireland they seem to stay in the hunt. “I think everyone is due a hiccup”. We’re about 6/1. Not that we are able to indulge in that.

“Everyone’s talking about a potential New Zealand backlash, but from our point of view we have to back up what we did in Chicago”, lock Devin Toner said on Tuesday. We trained in icy, sleety conditions (Thursday morning).

The mindset of the Irish is different now they know they can beat New Zealand, and not just run them close.

Coach Steve Hansen believes that some All Blacks might have been distracted ahead of the loss to Ireland in Chicago.

“They have the ability to shift through the gears so in Chicago, we knew we couldn’t sit back and defend a lead”. It is a challenge that this team needs right now and how we respond will tell us a lot about ourselves.