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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said he felt his side became “too desperate” at times and bemoaned their error-count after they lost 23-13 to New Zealand in Dublin on Friday evening.
The defeat meant Ireland’s 19-match unbeaten run came to an end at the hands of the All Blacks, with Damian McKenzie kicking 18 points alongside Will Jordan’s second-half try. Ireland, in return, scored eight points through Jack Crowley with Josh van der Flier scoring their only try.
New Zealand had the bulk of possession while Ireland committed 13 penalties to the All Blacks’ five.
Post-match Farrell said there are areas they need to address as they prepare to face Argentina next weekend.
When asked how the mood in the camp was, Farrell answered: “Disappointed. It’s easily summed up with the mood of the dressing room, it’s sombre. The lads are gutted, we’re all gutted together.
“I thought we prepped well, trained well, the boys were excited about the game. But we didn’t manage to put our game out on the field. The opposition have a big say in that but we made too many errors, supressed ourselves and the accuracy wasn’t there to win a Test match like that.
“We have to find solutions as soon as we possibly can. We have a hungry side in Argentina who are playing some good rugby. We have to get back on the horse.”
Ireland led 13-9 after Van der Flier’s 42nd minute try and Crowley’s conversion. But the All Blacks pinned them back via the boot of McKenzie.
Farrell said he thought the “turning point” in the match came in the 60th minute when New Zealand won a scrum penalty and went out into a two-point lead. That came after replacement tight-head Tom O’Toole lasted just two minutes before sustaining a head injury, meaning Finlay Bealham ended up playing 78 minutes.
From that point, New Zealand found the ascendancy again, scored their key try through Jordan after 68 minutes and got their 10-point advantage.
Farrell said he will look into Ireland’s indiscipline and said they will seek some clarification from World Rugby over certain law interpretation after they fell on the wrong side of referee Nic Berry.
“We’ll get a few answers in regard to clarification on a few of them, but it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong or right, we still shouldn’t have suppressed ourselves,” Farrell said.
“It’s not right to try and be desperate chasing your tail when you’ve made an error and then compounding it with another error. We became a little bit too desperate and on the back of that the energy wasn’t what we needed nor the accuracy.
“There’s no excuses for us. It is what it is. The opposition deserved to win. I felt the game was scrappy, stop-start. It was a slow enough game at times, and we need to be in charge of bringing our own energy.”