{"id":117066,"date":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/117066\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:53:09","slug":"mccloskey-stars-after-beirne-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/117066\/","title":{"rendered":"McCloskey stars after Beirne red"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a 26-13 defeat to the All Blacks in the international clash at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday, here are the player ratings for Ireland.<\/p>\n

15 Jamie Osborne: Had big shoes to fill with Hugo Keenan absent, but he was incredibly composed. Marshalled the backfield well, cleared his lines nicely and did his job in the air. 6<\/p>\n

14 Tommy O\u2019Brien: Like Osborne, not a hugely experienced Test player at the moment, but he looked the part in Chicago. It wasn\u2019t a game where O\u2019Brien had too many searing breaks with ball-in-hand, but his basics were sound. 6<\/p>\n

13 Garry Ringrose: Hugely unfortunate to miss out on the British and Irish Lions Test series through concussion, but he was back playing at the highest level here. However, the All Blacks<\/a> managed to find a few too many holes via his channel. 5<\/p>\n

Outstanding display<\/p>\n

12 Stuart McCloskey: Was perhaps a surprise inclusion, but Andy Farrell rewarded his early-season form and McCloskey more than justified his selection. The Ulster centre was hugely physical and a real focal point in that Ireland<\/a> attack. Absolutely superb display. 8<\/p>\n

11 James Lowe: Loves this game against the country of his birth and revelled in the contest, but there were some poor moments. Had one big claim under the high ball, and his boot was once again useful, but he\u2019s had much better days. 5<\/p>\n

10 Jack Crowley: Playing at 10 after his starring role in Munster\u2019s victory over Leinster, and he took that confidence into this game. However, he really needs to nail his kicks and he just lost control in the second period. 6<\/p>\n

9 Jamison Gibson-Park: Had a few questions to answer after Leinster\u2019s loss two weeks ago, but he was much better in Chicago. Gibson-Park\u2019s clearances on his own line were remarkable and helped to keep the All Blacks at arm\u2019s length for the opening hour. 7<\/p>\n

\"Planet<\/p>\n

8 Jack Conan: Carried well and was certainly a presence in contact before he was replaced early in the second period. 6<\/p>\n

7 Josh van der Flier: A big influence in the first-half as the openside fired into contact on both sides of the ball, but it reduced after the interval. 7<\/p>\n

6 Ryan Baird: Some game from the flanker, who was absolutely immense and probably Ireland\u2019s best player. Baird stole All Blacks lineouts, roamed around the field and made metres with ball in hand. 8<\/p>\n

All Blacks player ratings: Young forwards step up as \u2018dynamic\u2019 back-rower set to become \u2018invaluable\u2019 to Scott Robertson<\/a><\/p>\n

Red card controversy<\/p>\n

5 Tadhg Beirne: For us, his red card was rather harsh. Yes, there was effectively no attempt to tackle, but, at the very least, he was absorbing the contact and therefore it was a low degree of danger. But ultimately, his day did only last three minutes through, to a certain extent, an error in technique. 1<\/p>\n

4 James Ryan: Your typical workhorse shift from the lock, who does everything very efficiently, but he wasn\u2019t a standout in the second-row. 6<\/p>\n

3 Tadhg Furlong: Getting closer to his best and took a nice line for his try, while also showing other good touches, but the All Blacks did have the edge in the scrum. 7<\/p>\n

2 Dan Sheehan (c): Was influential early on, bumping off defenders and showing his class around the field, but perhaps the lack of game time told as Sheehan could not maintain those standards. 6<\/p>\n

1 Andrew Porter: Similar to Furlong, there were some good moments in the loose, but the set-piece was always under pressure. 6<\/p>\n

Replacements: Caelan Doris had a huge first carry back following injury but, perhaps understandably, he wasn\u2019t quite up to the speed of the game. It was the only real positive moment of note from the bench, which paled in comparison to the All Blacks\u2019. The front-row were marched back in the set-piece, Sam Prendergast couldn\u2019t alter the momentum and Bundee Aki had a stinker, which makes you question why McCloskey was replaced. 3<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks squash 2016 demons in comeback win over Ireland in Chicago<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a 26-13 defeat to the All Blacks in the international clash at Soldier Field in Chicago on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[778,1100,61,3859,60,1261,43],"class_list":["post-117066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-new-zealand","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}