The first victory in Ireland’s history against New Zealand

The results of the last six encounters between the two countries show three victories in each setting. So next Saturday in “beautiful” Wellington will be decisive, in the last three test matches between the two teams.

Johnny Sexton, flawless in front of the poles (100% success), will be able to celebrate his 37th birthday on Monday with the certainty of duty, who will later recall that he will thus be the first captain of Clover’s XV to victory on the territory of the All Blacks.

Suffice it to forget the controversy generated this week after he suffered a concussion last Saturday at Eden Park, despite the Leinster player being joined in Dunedin by Andy Farrell. This meeting, marked by some indiscipline (3 yellow cards, 1 red), could have turned in favor of the blacks, since the Irish missed a lot of chances in the first period.

reduced to 14

But that wouldn’t stop Dublin pubs celebrating this victory which erased a first Test match slap in which the Blacks led after five minutes and a try from Keith Earles, then scored four tries in less than 20 minutes, before taking off in the second term as they added two more.

In Dunedin, Haka barely digested, the Irish crossed the line by their assistant Andrew Porter, who served well on wing Mac Hansen, after a breakthrough from Tadhg Byrne. In difficulty, Sam Cane’s teammates made their defense talk, intractable, and prevented the Irish from solidifying their regional dominance and numerical superiority on points.

But instead of capitalizing on this clear advantage, the Irish have limited bad decisions, showing inaccuracies and not scoring. Even worse, they also found themselves at the age of 14 after sending James Ryan a yellow card. A feature that the Blacks, unlike the Irish, did not miss: on their first foray into Irish territory, they flattened it, by Bowden Barrett, before the break (7-10).

After returning from the locker room, the Clover XV finally managed to score, to double Andrew Porter (17-7, 49), before Sexton finally got his team out, not worried, even on an All Blacks second try, by Will Jordan, three minutes from time. . Make way for the beautiful next Saturday.