All Blacks deserved to end Ireland home run - Farrell

Andy FarrellImage source, Inpho
Image caption,

Ireland lost at home for just the second time under Andy Farrell

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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said there were "no excuses" for his side's 23-13 defeat by New Zealand.

Ireland had won their past 19 home games, and had lost just once at Aviva Stadium since round one of the 2019 Six Nations, but they were deservedly beaten in a game where indiscipline and errors were their undoing.

In what was a first game together since their drawn series with South Africa in July, Ireland's attack in particular offered little throughout.

"There's no excuses for us. You can talk about all sorts of stuff, rustiness, game-time - there's no excuse. It is what it is," Farrell said.

"The opposition, long story short, deserved to win.

"I thought we'd prepped well, trained well, everyone was excited about the game.

"We didn't manage to put our game out on the field. Obviously the opposition have a big say in that."

After falling foul of the referee on occasion when beating England six days prior, the All Blacks had spoken about discipline being a focus. They would win the penalty count 13-5 despite Jordie Barrett's yellow card on the stroke of half-time.

"I mean as far as the penalty count, I actually thought the game was stop-start. It was a bit scrappy, because of the weather that came down," Farrell added.

"It was a slow enough game at times. We needed to be in charge of looking after our own energy and we didn't do that well enough."

With this loss the first of four autumn games, Farrell said Ireland would have to shake the unusual feeling of a home reverse quickly with games against Argentina, Fiji and Australia still to come this month.

"It's a funny old feeling. We don't tend to have it too much in that dressing room.

"It is what it is, that's life. Congratulations to New Zealand. We move on. We have to.

"We have to find solutions as soon as we possibly can because we've got a hungry side in Argentina [next week] who are playing some really good rugby at this moment in time.

"We need to get back on the horse and start it all over again."

'We're pretty pleased and stoked'

Image source, Inpho
Image caption,

Scott Robertson's All Blacks are two from two on their northern hemisphere tour

All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson was delighted to see his side win what he called a "classic Test match".

"I'm really pleased," he said.

"Really pleased we showed so much courage and care with both sides of the ball. It was a classic Test match.

"The boys performed after half-time and we're pretty pleased and stoked to get a result like that."

While Ireland reduced the deficit to 9-6 on the stroke of half-time, and New Zealand would spend virtually the first ten minutes of the second-half with 14 men after Jordie Barrett's yellow card, Robertson said the message remained calm at the interval.

"Keep doing what we were doing," he said of what he told his side.

"We wanted to build some pressure and trust our skillsets.

"The guys who came off the bench made an impact and it was good to being some experienced players on."