AS IRELAND HAMMERED their way through a 37-phase attack, looking for a late score to snatch an historic World Cup quarter-final victory against New Zealand in Paris, the tension that had been bubbling away throughout the night at Stade de France hit an almost unbearable level within the stadium.
The passage of play eventually broke down with a New Zealand breakdown turnover that secured the win for Ian Foster’s side.
Speaking after the game, the New Zealand head coach said he wasn’t overly worried that his team would let the result slip as he watched Ireland launch wave after wave of attack.
“I actually felt quite calm, to be honest,” Foster said.
“They were going with a cut-and-paste attack, doing the same sort of things. We were really patient and they were really efficient with it. It was hard to get your nose in, we were hunting and searching, but we showed patience.
“With Scott McLeod and Joe [Schmidt] helping him, we have been building our system for today and how we want to defend. We are making some strides in that space and I was delighted.
“One mistake and the game could have gone the other way. But you haven’t been to a World Cup if you haven’t had a game like that. I remember the South Africa game [semi-final] in 2015. That is what World Cups are about – you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and trust what you do.”
“What an incredible finish to a test match,” added captain Sam Cane.
“I think that’s the longest I’ve heard of or witnessed. The boys kept turning up for each other. I think the defence won us the test match tonight. History shows that teams that win World Cups are very good defensively. It is our benchmark going forward.
We know how we want to play and what we’re about. It has been building up to a test match like this. When they scored, we knew what we needed to do to fix it, and we were confident we would make in-roads.”
Foster added that New Zealand felt Ireland might tire as the contest wore on. Most of the Ireland players had more minutes under their belt at this World Cup compared to New Zealand, who rotated their squad throughout the pool stages.
“We thought they would fatigue as the game went on. There has been a bit of that in the past and that is why we wanted to keep the game moving but in the end, I am not sure they have had as much as I would have liked, seeing how they finished.
“We like to play fast, not only against Ireland but against every team.”
The All Blacks were viewed as underdogs going into the Ireland game but will be heavy favourites to advance from their World Cup semi-final date with Argentina on Friday.
“The limelight was on Ireland, with 17 wins in a row,” Foster continued.
“They’ve built a team for this sort of iconic moment; they had massive expectations. We have been there as a team, we know what that’s like. We know some things kill you in those situations.
“Our role was just to be quiet and steel ourselves for the challenge. We know Argentina well, they know us well, it will be a heck of a game, a southern hemisphere game.”