In a Test rivalry where the needle is supposed to come as standard now, there was only one flashpoint, early in the first half. Joe McCarthy found himself surrounded by angry All Blacks and soon there was a bushfire of pushing and shoving. The cause was unclear. In the press conference, Scott Barrett presented himself as an eyewitness.
“I don’t usually take exception, but I saw something that was, you know, I guess below the line for me,” said the New Zealand captain. “I guess I had to make a point of ‘Not tonight you’re targeting our team like that’.”
His first answer tailed off, which only begged other questions. Barrett was happy to return to the stand and finish his testimony. “I think I was getting up from a ruck. From where I saw it, it looked like Damian [McKenzie] was on the ground and Joe [McCarthy] cleaned him up.
“From where I saw it, it looked like it was around his head. Whether it was or not, I’m not too sure. But I guess I took exception to that in that moment. It may not have been, but, yeah, I’m not too sure.
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“It just looked like a ruck. He was on the ground, from where I saw it and it looked like a bit of a shoulder to a man on the ground – who was our 10. Yeah, yeah.”
Did you see a lot of “below the line stuff,” Barrett was asked?
“No, no – I don’t think so. They play hard. They’re a great team, a physical team, great with the ball in hand. It was just the one moment.”
Neither the occasion nor the game ever caught fire. The haka sent a surge of electricity around the stadium, as it always does, and in a thinly veiled act of provocation the haka was led by Reiko Ioane – whose classless behaviour at the final whistle in the World Cup quarter-final had incensed Johnny Sexton. They pleaded innocent.
“We’ve got a number of guys in the squad who can lead the haka,” said Barrett. “It was Rieko’s first opportunity. We love it. The English walked forward and the Irish did that as well. I think you could sense the atmosphere of the crowd really getting in behind it. It sets the tone for what’s in store for the 80 minutes following.”
New Zealand’s form had been up and down during the Rugby Championship, and not a whole lot better in Twickenham last week. How good were they here? Ireland’s performance left that question hanging. For Scott Roberston, though, positives were easy to find.
“We had some incredible defensive sets and when we did create the opportunity, we made them make some tackles and their discipline went,” he said. “We managed to get inside their half and put a bit of pressure on and that led to some points so we could play from the front.
“I think on the field, the stats were coming out that we were getting a roll on. We got go-forward and put pressure on them. That was really, really pleasing. Tight lineout, awesome scrum, all the key things backed up by some good defence.”
Job done.
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