All Blacks played poorly for an hour and still beat Ireland - an intense rivalry is starting to fade
Sunday, 2 November 2025
ANALYSIS: One of the All Blacks’ great rivalries over the past decade might be coming to an end.
The All Blacks’ 26-13 win against Ireland was their third win in succession against the men in green, with the margin of victory increasing each time.
And they did it despite playing poorly for an hour, emphasising the gap in quality between the individual athletes available to All Blacks coach Scott Robertson and his opposite Andy Farrell.
The All Blacks simply had the greater weight of explosive, dynamic and powerful players, with Leicester Fainga’anuku, Wallace Sititi, Tamaiti Williams, Samisoni Taukei’aho and Pasilio Tosi contributing massively off the bench.
The Irish had no answer, and they will find the growing discrepancy between the two nations hard to bridge.
Not only are their own X-factor players - Bundee Aki, James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park - heading towards the twilight of their careers, but the New Zealand under-20s have beaten the young Irish twice over the past two years - including a 69-22 demolition this year in which Otago halfback Dylan Pledger scored two tries.
The Chicago test, therefore, was an advertisement for the quality of player that New Zealand continues to churn out, even if the opening hour left some questions about the game plan and overall direction from the coaches.
The lineout was messy, to say the least, and the All Blacks looked bereft of ideas about how to generate some momentum against a determined Ireland defence that typically made a dog’s breakfast of the breakdown.
In truth, it was only a remarkable kick-chase by lock Fabian Holland and his tackle on underwhelming Ireland No 10 Jack Crowley, leading to a Quinn Tupaea breakdown penalty, that turned the tide of the test.
That incident, on the hour mark, gave the All Blacks the foothold they needed and their power carriers did the rest during the last quarter: had the game gone on another five minutes the All Blacks could have conceivably hit 40 points.
Quite what the All Blacks make of the performance in the coming days will be interesting.
In some ways it was the best start to a grand slam because it was was so riddled with errors and inaccurate play that the room for improvement before the Scotland test is enormous.
It could be argued that the early exits of Scott Barrett and Jordie Barrett due to injuries were contributing factors, but that alone couldn’t excuse the high turnover rate - and even Cameron Roigard had a underwhelming test before a late flourish.
But what they will know for certain is that they are unlikely to encounter any team over the next month that has the sheer amount of game breakers they possess.
Once the All Blacks stopped knocking the ball on and overcomplicating their lineout options they had far too much athletic prowess for the Irish.
The two teams are scheduled to meet again in New Zealand next July as part of the inaugural Nations Championship, and the All Blacks are now clearly back on the front foot.