An error-ridden display by Ireland.
Ireland captain Caelan Doris says they “just weren’t good enough” in Friday night’s 23-13 defeat to New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium.
18 points from the boot of Damian McKenzie and a second-half Will Jordan try proved enough for the All Blacks, despite a try from Josh Van der Flier and kicks from Jack Crowley.
“We were quite reactive throughout,” explained Doris to TNT Sport. “Our discipline obviously wasn’t where it needed to be.
“They’re a quality side, they put us under pressure. We got momentum early in the second half but they came back out and put us under pressure again.
“It felt like we didn’t fire enough shots. Part of that was our defence letting them hold onto the ball and letting them attack, not hunting it back and trying to get turnovers as much as we would have liked, maybe.”
Doris expected Ireland to find more momentum in the second half, but while they did for a short period, it wasn’t enough to sustain itself until the final whistle.
“We felt there was another level in us energy-wise and that we were going to start to improve and a few calls were going to go our way and we were going to get back on track
“And we did early on but we left them back into it again.”
“We still have three big games over the next three weeks and we’ll just have to improve and get better because we just weren’t good enough tonight”
