All Blacks 28; Ireland 24
So near and yet so far!
Irish rugby followers the world over will spend most of this week contemplating what might have been if, as Head Coach Andy Farrell said afterwards, we had done just a little better in the battle of the “small margins.”
That said there were, too, other factors which were clearly visible across the 80 minutes of play in the Stade De France on Saturday night - The All Blacks were “up” for this game more than I’ve seen them for quite some time and conversely Ireland’s normal efficiency at set-pieces and bread and butter stuff like handling and decision-making were just slightly off kilter all night long.
Even when you factor in these components, it is gut-wrenching to think that we were a player’s hand away from scoring a dramatic winning try in added time after going through 37 phases of play to get across the New Zealand line.
We were that close to winning ugly but then when the normally excellent Caolan Doris knocked on from the drop out, our goose was cooked for at least another four years.
In summary though it should be underlined that this Ireland team under Farfell and Johnny Sexton should not be defined by becoming yet another Irish outfit who fails to advance beyond the quarter-finals of a world cup.
What this team has done in the past three years in winning two Grand Slams and becoming the World No 1 side for 14 months is something else. They have moved the dial significantly and should be recognized for the ground changing that has taken place in the Irish rugby psyche.
Yes the reality is we still have this monkey to get off our back; though watching France fail on Sunday night in equally dramatic fashion against the holders South Africa, you felt that both teams hit off nights while both the Springboks and the All Black capitalized on virtually every opportunity that came their way.
They say a good start is half the battle - well we got the inverse of that and when we went 13-0 down, it looked like the writing was on the wall.
By managing to get ourselves back to 18-17 by half-time underlined that we are not the Ireland of old any more - we have the nous and the confidence to accept whatever on-field challenge we face and take it on even if we carried the mantle of favorites in doing so.
There is no consolation to us that we ultimately lost 28-24 in a top-class World Cup game where we came back from the dead and almost staked our opponents at the very end.
There are plenty who will point to referee Wayne Barnes for the way he seemed to be fixated on penalizing Andrew Porter in the scrum. Consequently we coughed up penalties in this area which took the momentum away from us time and again.
However, there were moments of great pride particularly when the two New Zealanders in our side Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Parks burst over from tries in the first half which brought us right back into the game. Despite having an extra man for a period, however, we didn’t succeed in getting our noses in front at any stage of the second. If we did I feel, we would have kicked on but we kept presenting our opponents with ways to believe it would be their night as eventually it proved to be.
While the two first-half tries by the All Blacks were stabs to the heart, the real killer was our lack of awareness off first phase which allowed Will Jordon to run in from a lineout play which should have been meat and drink to our defenders.
Right through the game the feeling persisted that we were sprinting to stand still while our foes were gliding into space effortlessly and were able to maximize their every turn.
Even at the death in our 38 phase of rugby the feeling was there that it would fail; so that I wasn’t totally surprised when big Sam Whitelock came up with what proved to be the game-winning turnover.
And so the greatest ever era in Irish rugby history comes to an end with the likes of Sexton, Keith Earls and probably Peter O’Mahony stepping off the stage. The good news is the nucleus of the side going forward is still in their 20s and good enough to learn and improve as the seasons go by to the next World Cup.
Missing James Ryan proved crucial as I felt Tadhg Beirne wasn’t the same player packing down beside Iain Henderson, while the loss of Robbie Henshaw’s intelligence in the back division was also a big minus for Farrell when if he could have introduced him for the final 20 minutes it might have made all the difference.
As the huge green army decamped and headed for home, we could only repeat “what if.” We know for sure we would easily account for Argentina, as New Zealand will do this weekend coming, and then it would have been an 80 minutes joust probably with South Africa to win the Webb Ellis trophy. Maybe that is for the future… certainly we can dream of such happenings until we get there.
By the time the final comes around, expect a team of the series to be dominated by the finalists, but I will be keeping fingers crossed that Bundee Aki makes the final XV. What a World Cup he has had and it would be a defining moment for the 33-year-old to get such an accolade.
Most people felt real sorrow that Sexton didn’t depart on top of the world and looking at him in tears on Saturday night was heartbreaking.
Still the 38-year-old was defiant in defeat: "The last couple of years have definitely been, in a green jersey anyway, the most enjoyable of my career. Definitely.
"It's gutting that we couldn’t finish it off. Going back to that maul, when you’re over the line, it’s tough to take. Just a kick, if you’re chasing a penalty, it’s a lot easier at the end, but we left it all out there at least. I thought we had them a couple of times. Obviously to concede the turnover when we were so close to the line was gutting.
"But like Faz said, it’s small margins and that’s sport. That’s life. It’s unfortunate but this group will bounce back. They are an incredible bunch led by the man [Farrell] beside me. It’s the best group I have ever been apart of. Bar none. These guys will go on and achieve great things and I’ll be sitting in the stand having a pint like you lads."
After the game, Farrell but was unhappy with some of the refereeing decisions. "We've a different view to what was going on out there in the scrum but we don't want to sit here and have sour grapes."
Forwards coach Paul O'Connell concurred: "I’d like to see the scrums again."
Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; J Sexton (capt), J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; T Beirne, I Henderson; P O'Mahony, J van der Flier, C Doris Replacements: R Kelleher, D Kilcoyne, F Bealham, J McCarthy, J Conan, C Murray, J Crowley, J O'Brien.
