The All Blacks yesterday weathered Ireland assaults at the start of each half, but responded with six tries to open their season with a hard-fought 42-19 victory in Auckland to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series.
Ardie Savea scored either side of halftime — his first in a blitz of three tries in eight minutes — as New Zealand avenged a 29-20 loss in Dublin in November last year and extended their unbeaten run at Eden Park to 47 Tests over 28 years.
Ireland will take confidence for the Dunedin and Wellington Tests from dominating for extended periods, and breaching the New Zealand line for tries by winger Keith Earls, center Garry Ringrose and Auckland-born midfield replacement Bundee Aki.
Photo: AFP
Fullback Jordie Barrett scored a try and converted all six for the All Blacks, while winger Sevu Reece, center Quinn Tupaea and debutant loose forward Pita Gus Sowakula also crossed for the home side.
“We’re pretty pleased, that’s a good start to the year for sure,” All Blacks captain Sam Cane said. “We were good for patches, certainly a good start, but we’ve got a lot to work on. The boys defended really well, right until the end as well.”
Ireland, who had won three of the past five meetings between the nations, but have never beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand, came out firing and crucially won the early battle of the breakdown.
Earls went over for his 35th Test try after five minutes and Jordie Barrett’s response for New Zealand 16 minutes later was against the run of play.
Ireland were again on the attack after half an hour when Reece scooped up an errant pass and raced away for New Zealand’s second try and there was a second blow for the visitors when skipper Johnny Sexton was forced off after a head knock.
The All Blacks were over again six minutes later when Tupaea ran onto flyhalf Beauden Barrett’s beautifully angled grubber-kick and that was followed almost immediately by Savea’s first try.
The Irish reset and cut into the 28-5 halftime deficit four minutes after the break when Ringrose went over in the corner following a fine assist from a spinning James Lowe.
Savea rampaged over after 53 minutes and Irelands hopes of wrestling their way back into the contest faded when Joey Carbery and Josh van der Flier were adjudged to have lost control of the ball over the line in separate forays.
New Zealand now had a firm grip on the contest and the popular Sowakula continued his breakout season by coming off the back of an attacking scrum and flying across the line under the posts.
The visitors never gave up and pounded away at the All Blacks defensive line for much of the final 10 minutes, persisting even after the reward of a consolation try for Aki to take the contest five minutes past the final hooter.
“Overall, I thought it was a great Test match and it’ll give us confidence breaking down a defence as good as the All Blacks have,” Ireland coach Peter O’Mahony said. “Plenty to work on from our side, but a huge amount of confidence to be taken from it.”
In Australia, the hosts snapped an eight-match losing streak against England with a 30-28 win.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
RSS