Coach Andy Farrell said that Ireland were closer to the All Blacks than the scoreline suggested in a 40-21 defeat but conceded his side \u201cnever really got going\u201d after an error-strewn start.<\/p>\n
Farrell could not explain why his team\u2019s vibrant attacking game spluttered in Auckland, especially in a muddled first half as they went to the break 28-7 down.<\/p>\n
But he was proud of Ireland\u2019s response in an evenly contested second period and believed he and his players would learn a lot as they build for next year\u2019s World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the two sides are certainly closer than that, and I suppose the only thing that matters is how both teams keep on improving over the next 15 months,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are full of pride because of the fight, et cetera, but we are disappointed with how it unfolded in accuracy over a few parts of our game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s uncharacteristic, really, because it is something that you do not see, certainly on a daily basis, but that is what big matches do to you, and that is a lesson that has got to be learned, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it be passing into touch or intercept passing or whatever, the flow of our game never really got going.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut how we struck at it and kept on fighting is there for everyone to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farrell was reluctant to comment on an incident in the first half in which New Zealand flanker Luke Jacobson was shown a yellow card after he collided with the head of Irish forward Josh van der Flier at the breakdown.<\/p>\n
The Ireland coach was asked if he believed the incident warranted the card being upgraded to red.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were incidents all over the field tonight that you could talk about and we are not able to do that, so that I will pass on that one,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Andy Farrell said that Ireland were closer to the All Blacks than the scoreline suggested in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1451,25747,61,60,233048,43],"class_list":["post-557458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-v-new-zealand","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557458","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=557458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}