All Blacks pleased with defence ahead of French clash

SPOTLIGHT: New Zealand travells to France for this coming Saturday’s Test on the back of an impressive 23-13 victory over Six Nations champions Ireland.

The All Blacks outthought and outfought an uncharacteristically sloppy Ireland outfit to bring the hosts’ 19-match home winning streak to an end.

New Zealand’s victory was built, like their 28-24 triumph over Ireland in the 2023 World Cup quarterfinal on a rock solid defence.

Ireland’s Josh van der Flier scored a try early in the second-half, but rather than sparking an Irish deluge – they rarely got a sniff of another chance as the All Blacks extinguished their attacks.

The defensive display had head coach Scott Robertson purring.

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“We produced some really incredible defensive plays when we did get the opportunity,” he said.

“We made some tackles and their discipline went and we managed to get inside their half and put a little bit of pressure and that led to some points so we could play from the front.”

For Robertson, it has been and up and down first year – losing three of their Rugby Championship Tests, including one at home to Argentina.

However, the 50-year-old said the difference on Friday was the scrum showed they had learned from errors in those losses.

“Yeah, look, as I’ve said before, every game we could have won this year,” he said.

“We got a couple of scrum penalties that swung the momentum back our way, which sometimes have gone the other way.”

Robertson’s main selection conundrum for the France Test may well be at scrumhalf.

There is currently no clear first-choice No.9 since the great Aaron Smith retired after the World Cup Final loss to the Springboks.

The starting No.9 against Ireland – Cortez Ratima had a torrid time, especially at the breakdown, outshone by Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park, and was subsequently replaced early in the second-half.

His replacement Cam Roigard, who has returned from a serious knee injury, looked more assured.

However, New Zealand captain Scott Barrett shouldered some of the blame for Ratima’s problems at the breakdown.

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“At times our body height was a little bit high and they were able to disrupt and we gave Cortez [Ratima] some messy balls, so yeah, I guess it’s on us,” he said.

“That’s probably the first thing to address next week.”

Robertson for his part praised both saying Ratima was ‘learning really quickly’ and his fellow 23-year-old Roigard has all the ‘attributes’ for Test rugby and is ‘really classy’.

“We’ve got some great competition at scrumhalf,” he said.

There’s nothing more a team likes more than a captain stepping-up when he sees something not to his liking on the pitch.

The bad blood between the teams – harking back to a heated exchange between now retired Ireland flyhalf Johnny Sexton and All Black centre Rieko Ioane as the final whistle went on their quarterfinal, came to a head early in the first-half.

Barrett fronted up to Ireland lock Joe McCarthy

“I don’t usually take exception, but I saw something that was below the line for me,” he said.

“I think I was getting up from a ruck and from where I saw it, it looked like Damian [McKenzie]was on the ground and I think Joe cleaned him up.

“From where I saw it, it looked like it was around his head, it looked like a bit of a shoulder.

“I had to make a point of, it’s not tonight, you’re targeting our No.10 like that.”