Rugby story by Fred Smith, Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:56:00 GMT


It was a bloodbath at Lansdowne Road as a second string All Blacks side ran through Irish defenses 45-7. All Blacks coach Graham Henry rang in 15 changes from the side that crushed Wales 41-3, but even this side was better than a full strength Ireland.

Wingers Sitiveni Sivivatu and Doug Howlett will be on top of the waiting list for the first choice team after a stellar performance in this game. Piri Weepu's crossing skills and Nick Evans' finishing skills were also praiseworthy. Ronan O'Gara put Geordan Murphy into space after some bungling by All Blacks centre Ma'a Nonu to bring the crowd to its feet within two minutes from the start.

But the Kiwis withstood the pressure admirably and Mose Tuiali'i broke from the back of a scrum and passed to Sivivatu, who put Evans in possession for the finish. In the 21st minute, skipper McCaw broke into space to provide the scoring pass to Piri Weepu. Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer saved what would have been a definite scoring opportunity to deny the All Blacks.

Forwards Malcolm O'Kelly and Johnny O'Connor played a decent game, but their skills were no match for the Kiwi defense. By the time the final whistle was blown, Eddie O'Sullivan's men were down and out of the game.

Ireland skipper Simon Easterby maintains that his side is confident for the Australia game on Saturday despite this huge loss, "Our confidence is not bad, we are just disappointed with ourselves more than anything else. We knew New Zealand was a fantastic team but we let ourselves and the coaches down," he said.

Easterby said that they had missed a lot of tackles and against the All Blacks they proved costly, "There are positives that can be taken from the match but we must finish our chances. New Zealand is a good team but we made them look better than they are. They did not have to work for what they got."

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