Following the All Blacks’ 26-13 win against Ireland in Soldier Field, Chicago, here are our key winners and losers from the opening Test of the Autumn Nations Series.
Winners
Cam Roigard
An absolutely compelling display of the half-back’s art from the diminutive Hurricane who was at the heart of the All Black’s win. Roigard grabbed a try himself, but his speed to clear rucks and to get the ball into play was a credit to his attacking mindset.
Not content with a wonderful display with ball in hand, Roigard was one of New Zealand’s key men in the kicking battle, adding 161m in his kicks from hand in a wonderful personal performance.
All Blacks Bench
New Zealand were struggling for momentum until the introduction of Wallace Sititi and Damian McKenzie. Both men offered huge impact as finishers, Sititi a key man in carry and D-Mac spotting the space for his young flanker to exploit.
Add in some powerful work in the tight from the mighty Tamaiti Williams and Samisoni Taukei’aho, a great shift after an early introduction from Josh Lord at lock and it’s clear that the Kiwi finishers made an impact that just shifted the game balance away from Ireland in the close out.
Ireland Fresh Faces
They’ve both got a fair few caps, but in recent times, neither Ryan Baird nor Stuart McCloskey have quite had the selectorial work their talents demand.
Both of the fresh faces were the standouts in their respective units; Baird had a spiky and confrontational match, supporting in the wide channel, but really adding some physicality down the middle as he laid down a marker for the six jersey that Peter O’Mahoney has held onto for so long.
McCloskey always delivers, whether for Ireland or Ulster, and his direct running at 12, combined with some really intelligent leadership of the Irish defensive effort, underlined the depth Andy Farrell had in the centres.
Test rugby has come late for the centre; at 33 you have to wonder how long he can contribute for- but at 26, Baird seems to be at the peak of his powers and offers a brilliant back five option for Ireland as they build for 2027.
Beauden Barrett
Not so much for his on-field contribution (which was pretty decent in itself) but more so for his classy post-match comments around the Tadhg Beirne red card moment, demonstrating both Barrett’s sportsmanship and the All Black humility.
The Kiwi ten went on record as describing the card as harsh, explaining that it was a split-second piece of timing and that he wasn’t expecting the pass in any case. The mild-mannered All Black said he’d be there to support Beirne in his hearing and was happy to suggest that there was a high degree of mitigation that the officials perhaps didn’t take fully into consideration. A classy and very authentic statement from a great of the game.
Losers
Match Officials
Let’s be honest, whilst ref-bashing should never be a thing, Pierre Brousset’s performance on a big spectacle in a territory where World Rugby are looking to break through couldn’t have been more pedantic, pedestrian and pernickety if he’d have tried.
The French mood hoover appeared to be using laser plumb lines on lineouts, rarely let advantages play out and spent his time preening from moment to moment with all of the self-awareness and empathy of Inspector Clouseau investigating the Maria Gambrelli case.
The Beirne card; the one simple question is, if a 20-minute red wasn’t available, would it have been upgraded? The mitigation was clear as day; Barrett was surprised by a forward pass, low level of impact, no lasting damage to Barrett, and a patently obvious case of a mistimed rugby incident. Red seemed ridiculously harsh- yellow, as an outcome, was right at the top of the range of the offence.
Soldier Field
The pitch itself resembled a patchwork quilt and looked way below the presentation standard required for a top-tier Test of this nature. Not to be fooled by its own appearance, the turf struggled to support the scrummage battle itself, and more attention needs to be paid to pitch curation if Rugby World Cup 2031 is to be a roaring success.
Big games also need big organisation and the lack of comms and in-stadium screening over the Beirne card incident was an embarrassment to the organisers. Do better is the simple message.
Lineouts
With Brousset’s laser level applied to every contest, only the truest of throws escaped his monotonous whistle – but even when the hookers managed to go down the straight and narrow, both teams looked as if they’d mistaken the tin of spray lineout glue for cans of WD-40, such was the level of awful handling.
11 lineouts were lost by the collective packs; sure, part of that was down to great competition, notably by Baird and Fabian Holland, but far more was down to some really poor handling by the catching pods.
READ MORE: World Rugby rankings: How the All Blacks, Springboks and England’s wins impacted the standings