All Blacks beat Ireland with plenty to spare at Eden Park fortressOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n12 Stuart McCloskey<\/p>\n
He will be disappointed that his loose pass in the Irish 22 led to a try but carried with typical thunder and the quantity and quality of his tackling was conspicuous. Physically stood up and out. Rating: 6<\/p>\n
11 Jimmy O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n
Suffered a head knock early on and when he returned was left on the periphery of the action other than having to deal with aerial threats and multiple black shirts running down his wing. Rating: 5<\/p>\n
10 Sam Prendergast<\/p>\n
Place-kicking was first class, some good, some not so in line kicking, passing was a mixed bag, and he enjoyed more of an influence when the game was looser. But when Ireland needed control and variety Ireland\u2019s attack was all a little pedestrian and obvious. Rating: 6<\/p>\n
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GYRV6G33O6RLLM6JXK225FPBWI.jpg\")
Ireland’s Sam Prendergast with New Zealand’s Beauden Barrett after the match. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho 9 Jamison Gibson-Park<\/p>\n
New Zealand got to him at the breakdown, disrupting his service, while he threw several passes into a cluster of Irish bodies that went to ground. Few moments of typical quality for tries. Rating: 5<\/p>\n
1 Tom O\u2019Toole<\/p>\n
Another who produced a voracious volume of work, especially in his tackling, and it should be acknowledged that he is transitioning to loosehead while playing Test rugby. Rating: 6<\/p>\n
2 Dan Sheehan (capt)<\/p>\n
Lineout was superb, but it was the captain\u2019s general play that stood out, carried with vigour and fire, and was aggressive in the tackle. Got his team over the gain line. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
3 Tadhg Furlong<\/p>\n
Scrum was rock solid and he did his fair share of the heavy lifting both in carrying, clean-outs and making tackles while offering a streetwise presence in taking contact. Rating: 6<\/p>\n
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AXLLYFLAHS5Y4RGAYBM5OXYLP4.jpg\")
Ireland’s Joe McCarthy comes up against New Zealand’s Asafo Aumua. Photograph: Craig Butland\/Inpho 4 Joe McCarthy<\/p>\n
Outstanding. One thing that stands out above the latent power that he brings to the collisions is the footwork that enables him to unpick defensive seams. He was more than a match for opponents in the tackle. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
5 James Ryan<\/p>\n
He will be disappointed with a handling error in the New Zealand 22 as Ireland looked threatening but again, he was physical and robust in his work, stole a lineout and ensured that Ireland\u2019s functioned impressively. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
6 Tadhg Beirne<\/p>\n
Spent the whole match at the breakdown like a child in a sweet shop who is told that he can look but is not allowed to touch any of the sweets. Hugely frustrating but he was a key team contributor. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
7 Josh van der Flier<\/p>\n
The recipient of a head shot that should have been punished more severely, he covered so much ground especially in defence and often making two or three tackles in the one phase of play. Rating: 7<\/p>\n
8 Jack Conan<\/p>\n
Brilliant. His try embellished a high-quality display characterised by his success in ensuring that his team had front-foot ball to play off and showed courage too in taking the punishment that came with it. Rating: 8<\/p>\n
Replacements<\/p>\n
Rating: Sean Jansen and Nick Timoney added energy and impetus while Ciar\u00e1n Frawley made some important contributions during his two spells on the pitch. In a general sense, the bench helped to raise the tempo. Rating: 7 <\/p>\n
Head coach \u2013 Andy Farrell<\/p>\n
Farrell will be frustrated with the discipline and the passing, which translates to a lack of composure and trust in some of Ireland\u2019s output. He will be pleased with the character that his team displayed, and the impact of some newbies. Rating: 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"15 Hugo Keenan He should have given a pass to Rob Baloucoune for a good try-scoring chance but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1451,42,1449,86133,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-556968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-all-blacks","tag-headlines","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556968","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=556968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767177708414-69197743-5ee2-4403-b94c-9a36cd6b79cd.jpeg\"\/)
Reaction: New Zealand ease to victory over Ireland<\/p>\n