Ireland suffered a crushing 40-21 defeat as New Zealand stretched their remarkable unbeaten run at Eden Park to 53 Test matches in round three of the inaugural Nations Championship.
Following unconvincing bonus-point wins over Australia and Japan, Andy Farrell’s side were bidding to complete a clean sweep of the Southern Hemisphere series.
But they were outclassed on a punishing evening in Auckland as first-half tries from Patrick Tuipulotu, Ardie Savea, Will Jordan and Asafo Aumua put the All Blacks in control.
Jack Conan claimed Ireland’s only score of the opening period after New Zealand flanker Luke Jacobson escaped with just a yellow card for a dangerous clearout on Josh van der Flier, while Joe McCarthy and Hugo Keenan went over in the second half.
Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown added further scores for New Zealand and fly-half Ruben Love kicked five conversions as they maintained their perfect start to the competition following victories over France and Italy.
“Inaccurate is the word,” said Farrell, speaking to ITV. “Continuity, it just wasn’t flowing for all sorts of reasons, whether that be discipline reasons, spilt ball, throwing the ball into touch, et cetera.
“The character and fight is there for all to see, hence the comeback and win against Australia, but you can’t make so many errors against a quality side like New Zealand. Congratulations to them.”
France, meanwhile, overcame Japan with Matthieu Jalibert scoring twice in a 42-15 win.
Jalibert was again deployed at full-back in playmaking partnership with fly half Romain Ntamack, and crossed for two of five tries in the win in Tokyo – with Maxime Lamothe (2) and Maxime Lucu ensuring a clean sweep of Bordeaux Begles try-scorers.
Australia lock Josh Canham scored a hat-trick of tries in a rampant 57-10 victory over Italy for their first Nations Championship success and a fitting farewell to coach Joe Schmidt.
Australia ended a run of six successive defeats, including their first two matches in the new competition at home to Ireland and France over the last fortnight, with Tom Wright, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Angus Bell, Len Ikitau, Billy Pollard and Ben Donaldson also scoring in a feast of nine tries.
Ryan Lonergan added five `conversions and Donaldson one more while captain Michele Lamaro and Australia-born Monty Ioane scored tries for the Italians. Australia raced to a convincing 38-5 halftime lead as they laid the platform for their first Test win since beating Japan in Tokyo last October.
PA
