[RWC2023 QF2] Ireland vs New Zealand (14/10/2023)

[Lé Ddanno]

Questionable refereeing wtf

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Got me crying in the club rn

Looks more like he says "I shat myself" cannot be unseen.

 

[MattGaff]

sam Whitlock at 165 years of age with one of the clutchest turnovers in world rugby history

Absolutely. He looked like he was blowing after 5 mins of coming on. That turnover could have gone wrong... needed to be perfect. TBF... I though Savea had a decent shout a few phases before! If NZ gave away a pen. Kick to corner, lineout, drive, Try Ireland. Such fine margins though. Epic Epic contest. There had to be a loser, but the rugby won!

 

[IT157]

amazing game, All Blacks deserved that win. To do so with such a hostile Irish Crowd and questionable refereeing was pretty special.
Controlling the game through 2 yellow cards and adjusting things as the flow of the game changed was immense.
Its particularly special to see Sam Cane play such an important role. Some players look great in games we win comfortably while Cane never gets credit. But he can and does lift for brutal games like this. And after the sledging the Irish players aimed at him it is so sweet to see him smashing them around the park, making critical plays and winning the one that matters.

Really interesting start with a couple of nervous passes from Smith AND some wayward kicks as well. Then the AB's calmed things down and held the ball.
And all week people have been *****ing about Beaudens kicking game and I've been trying to tell them that we need him kicking and if we just hold the ball the Irish will pin us down and monster us and eventually bully us at the breakdown. kicking into space and moving the Irish pack down was going to be critical and Beauden nailed it when we needed.

Defense was generally pretty amazing from the AB's. Irish have a really established attacking plan which isn't flash but is really hard to counter and for the most part it was shut down. And we really only allowed the Irish to score through yellow cards. And there really has to be some irony around the 2 Irish tries scored By Kiwis, people should really be giving some credit to the coaches on coming up with a plan to Keep the Irish out.
Has to be said though the biggest liabilities we had on defense were Ioane and fainga'anuku the two of them combined for a really nice try but pretty much everything good Ireland did on attack there was Ioane missing or not even attempting to make a tackle. He did some good things on attach but first and foremost you have to make tackles. I personally would put ALB in there he is arguably the best midfield defender in the world Aki would never have a game like that with ALB there looking after him. And hes no slog on attack ether and probably better at feeding the edges than Ioane.

The Scrum and lineout were amazing from the AB's. one mistake being when they contested a lineout they should have defended before the penalty try. The frustrating thing being the AB's should have won a clear turnover just prior if not for a genuine refereeing howler. It was critical to have DeGroot and Lomax come back and play well. William and Fletcher off the bench with a superb effort and Sam Whitelock with the clutch turnover to win it. Savea and Cane everywhere, huge effort. Still some dicapline issues to work on but it looked like they adjusted and improved on it during the game.

Phenomenal game, this has to be the best Irish side of all time and one of the best teams ever. Huge win for the AB's.

Is this just typical New Zealand response that not every call goes their way so they think it is questionable referring?

Rest of the post was actual solid. Especially the part about Barrett.

 

[Horacito]

Questionable refereeing wtf

Exactly, wtf are we talking about here
Wayne burnes did amazingly

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Wow…epic match deserving of a final

I've seen post both ways about the reffing…which probably means he did a good job all in all

Something that I haven't seen mentioned much…it took a complete change in how we've been trying to play for the last five years (we would have played whole games without 30 phases and we did it in a row in the first quarter)….and players like BB and Cane (who have had long runs of injury and/or poor form) to have blinders to beat this Irish team

Huge credit to Ireland…it took a perfect storm to beat them

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Commiserations to Ireland.

I thought our defensive structure was hugely improved from the past and very Ireland focused. For example We kept our players out wide rather than following where the Irish players were; that meant we were prepared for their loopy plays on subsequent phases. I'm sure Schmidt helped with the defensive structure.

I thought Ireland didn't suffer hugely from the pressure, but they suffered just enough. They did create some numbers at times but consistently chose the safe option not to use them. When they are playing at their most confident they see a few more opportunites to shift into 5th gear and execute.

Not to actually talk about rugby but i 100% agree. It was night and day compared to Scotland who just gave up once the ball moved outside them. The players always kept their lane and they kind of let the wing have the ball knowing that a tackle would be made or they could force them back in field. They also did a good job of forcing the ball carrier back into jacklars.

Just an excellent defensive performance by New Zealand.

 

[Derpus]

Haha half the internet had already awarded Ireland the Web Ellis before this tournament. Another quarter final exit is hilarious.

Australia may be awful but at least I can still enjoy others suffering.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Is anyone else feeling, like, really bad for our Green posters rn

Obviously not Derpus in his MASSIVE glass house

 

[ShropshireAllBlack]

It just felt from early in the game that Ireland had to try too hard, and they were having to force it a little bit. Full credit to the AB defence, they were the first team in 18 months to really stress the Irish. If AB discipline had been better, I think it would have been more than a 1 score game. Congratulations to all our NZ posters, we'll come again!

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Is anyone else feeling, like, really bad for our Green posters rn

Obviously not Derpus in his MASSIVE glass house

Green and gold never

But yeah.

I am the greatest hater east of the Mississippi so any meme loss by Ireland or Leinster will be hilarious to me but . . . I really like our community and our Irish posters are good members of it. Alpha in particular I was worried about how the loss would hit him. I know to let the English wallow in their own threads after their losses and I hope our Irish members are enjoying a night out in Paris.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

Yeah they're a great bunch, breaks my heart

 

[miccloarch]

If you can't take a sledging, get out of the... snow?

I do actually feel a bit for them and every team that loses but at the same time it's a game and no one died. AB fans get sledged all the time. Four more years boys.

 

[Derpus]

Is anyone else feeling, like, really bad for our Green posters rn

Obviously not Derpus in his MASSIVE glass house

Nah **** em. Maybe if they didn't poach Mack. But they did, so **** em.

 

[O’Doyle Rules]

NZ found us our kids. Meh 2027!

 

[corny]

Ireland would not have been underwhelming had they won, because it meant they played better than their predictable attacks negated easily.

That makes little sense. What you're effectively saying is that had Ronan Kelleher rolled Barrett and touched down their attack wouldn't have been underwhelming. It hinged on that. Ridiculous.

 

[Larksea]

Questionable refereeing wtf

when the AB's get 2 yellow cards for cynical plays and the Irish commit a cynical foul and its just a penalty I'm going to rightly question the ref. Maybe the most by the book turnover the AB's made ended up a penalty the other way in the lead up to the penalty try. hardly made any sense at all the tackle, roll away and attack of the ball of an outnumbered was almost textbook and the call wasn't consistent with how its been refed for the rest of this game or the tournament. There was also a crazy turnover where an Irish player went straight into the side of a ruck and pulled the ball out and Barnes said it was out. it clearly wasn't and didn't make any sense at all and was a huge swing in momentum a critical time.

I will give credit to the refs from not buying into Aki's hollywood earlier in the game, then there were more replays of AB tackles looking for high shots and later on Jordie got hit with a clear high shot that was missed and it wasn't looked at.

 

[AmericanRugbyFan]

Just wanted to say that was an unbelievable match and this American thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a young South African couple from our church over to watch. We just had a fantastic time watching an unreal matchup. A shame one squad had to lose

 

[TommiG88]

I was hoping for an Ireland win….. but these things happen

 

[ncurd]

Yeah feel for the Irish lads here and in general. Feels like the last couple of world cups they just haven't hit the strides they should of done. Reads like a fantastic ABs performance which is what ot should of always taken to beat this Irish side.

When you know your best players are retiring it smarts when they don't quite live up to their potential.