The November weekend was a long-awaited day for all of the Irish fans before the Six Nations. It was the real tester as the All Blacks faced Ireland, a rematch of the 2023 Rugby World Cup semifinals.
Ireland was flying high, with 20 games undefeated at Dublin, while the All Blacks were in transition and struggling to find their ground in the Rugby Championship.
This was one of the worst stints the All Blacks have seen in a Rugby Championship, during which the team lost to South Africa and Argentina.
In their first Autumn International fixture, the side marginally beat England in the final minute, thanks to a conversion from Damian Mckenzie.
With this, the demand for the Ireland v All Blacks fixture was soaring high with more fans with Six Nations tickets looking to get a glimpse of the chance at revenge for Ireland.
As fans flooded platforms such as Seatsnet for seating, the stadium was buzzing with thousands of Irish fans looking for a win.
But the All Blacks weren’t bowing away from the Irish fight. From the word get-go, the All Blacks’ plan was simple: get points on board and pose a threat to the home side.
This plan worked rightly for Scott Robertson’s team, as he received his first major accolade since taking up the All Blacks coaching job.
Turning Point
The statistical reality was that the much-fancied Irish had taken a hammering on the penalty count, conceding 13 penalties to just five New Zealand infringements. It was the difference between winning and losing, as Damian McKenzie made hay, landing six of his seven penalty kicks directed at the poles.
This accuracy left the tourists with the win. Ireland, who led 13-9 three minutes into the second half after a converted Josh van der Flier try, couldn’t kick on from there, with their momentum pierced by the flow of penalties and a bench that malfunctioned rather than adding some badly needed energy.
Ireland Vows to Fight Back
Ireland’s players have vowed there will be “no sulking” during their efforts to bounce back from the disappointment of a first Dublin defeat in more than three years.
The fans with Six Nations tickets for 2025 also think the same. They believe that their players can anchor the fightback in the next fixture.
Andy Farrell’s men were seeking a 20th consecutive win at the Aviva Stadium before being beaten 23-13 by New Zealand in their biggest game of this month’s Autumn Nations Series.
Friday evening’s stop-start encounter failed to live up to its billing as the All Blacks deservedly triumphed thanks to six Damian McKenzie penalties and Will Jordan’s 37th try in 39 Tests.
Error-strewn Ireland, whose only previous home loss under head coach Farrell came against France in the 2021 Six Nations, will look to respond against Argentina on Friday before hosting Fiji and Australia.
Prop Finlay Bealham said: “It was a disappointed dressing room. It’s always tough to lose at home.
“We got into a huddle and just said, ‘No sulking.’ We’ll get on with it and learn from the mistakes we made.
“We have an incredibly tough Test match next Friday, and we’ll look to fix the stuff we can be better at.
“There’s still three games to go in this series, and we’ll dust ourselves off.
“We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves; we’ll analyze it properly and another big Test next week.”
We got into a huddle and just said, ‘No sulking.’ We’ll get on with it and learn from our mistakes.
Following a largely forgettable first half of limited action, Josh van der Flier’s 43rd-minute try looked to have ignited the contest.
Yet a series of mistakes and repeated infringements stifled Ireland as New Zealand recovered from the sin-binning of Jordie Barrett to regain the momentum and subdue the sold-out crowd.
Thanks to options on trusted marketplaces on Seatsnet, most fans had a first glance at the team that will play in the Six Nations in 2025, but they did not leave the stadium in high spirits.
This might still be a tough pill to swallow for the Irish fans, considering that they believe their team is probably the best they’ve ever produced.
“They’re a world-class team with some unbelievable individuals,” said Bealham.
“Every time you play them you know it’s going to be an absolute war, and it was a war again. They were the better team on the night.
“They were really good in terms of ruck pressure, and we couldn’t get into our flow attack-wise.
“(I’m) confident (we can turn it around). We’ve got world-class coaches and players, and we want to analyze it properly and see where it went wrong and what we can improve on.
“I’m sure, knowing the group, we’ll fix a lot of that.”
Bealham was thrust into Ireland’s starting XV due to star tighthead Tadhg Furlong being sidelined by a hamstring strain.
The 33-year-old played the majority of the game after his replacement, Tom O’Toole, was forced off with a head injury shortly after coming off the bench.
“I got a mouthful of water, and then, unfortunately for Tom, he went down, and I knew I was back on,” said Bealham.
All Blacks Ioane Stirs Irish Fans
Rieko Ioane stirred the pot in his simmering rivalry with former Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton as the New Zealand center aimed to jibe a Sexton’s way on social media after the All Blacks’ win in Dublin.
The pair clashed in the moments following the All Blacks’ dramatic World Cup quarter-final win in Paris last October, which ended Sexton’s Test career.
Ioane was caught on camera jawing with the veteran, who revealed details of the exchange in his autobiography.
“Don’t miss your flight home tomorrow,” Sexton claimed Ioane said in the Rugby World Cup before the Kiwi added: “Enjoy retirement, you c***.”
Sexton went on to write: “So much for the All Blacks’ famous “no d********” policy. So much for their humility. I walk after Ioane and call him a fake, humble f*****. It doesn’t look great. I’m having a go at one of them just after we’ve lost. But I can’t be expected to ignore that.”
While Sexton has departed rugby, there was no shortage of meaning behind Friday night’s encounter as the All Blacks ended the hosts’ winning run in Dublin.
In the absence of hooker Codie Taylor and scrum-half TJ Perenara, Ioane led New Zealand’s haka and wasted little time using social media to make a point post-match.
“Put that in the book,” Ioane wrote on Instagram alongside a joker emoji in a thinly-veiled dig at Sexton.
Options for the remaining Autumn internationals are now available on Seatsnet. Six Nations tickets are also available for Ireland home games for 2025.
