Backs
Hugo Keenan — 8: A try-saving tackle in either half and a monster take in the air on 54 minutes were the highlights. Fell off a couple more but there were no real lowlights. Picked up where he left off for Ireland in the XVs game for the most part.
Mack Hansen — 7: Was mainly effective in the attacking breakdown during the first half. Came alive with ball in hand — and finally found some success in the air — in the last quarter.
Garry Ringrose — 6: Clever support line for Aki’s offload which yielded a yellow on half-time for Ringrose’s soon-to-be-teammate Jordie Barrett. Melted Reiko Ioane in a monstrous first-half tackle. A solid outing, albeit one in which he was starved of real attacking opportunities.
Bundee Aki — 6: Two uncharacteristic early errors — a forced forward pass and a sloppy knock-on — left him visibly frustrated. It was Aki who eventually burst a hole in the Kiwi line for the move which resulted in Barrett’s yellow and three points. Made nine carries, slightly less than his average, which illustrates some of Ireland’s attacking struggles.
James Lowe — 7: Kept Ireland alive in the final 10 minutes when the game would have otherwise petered out. Made one of the best 50-22s you’ll ever see — a touchline 22-22 in reality — and led Ireland in carries (nine, alongside Aki and Caelan Doris) and metres gained (40).
Jack Crowley — 6: The feeling that he never truly had control of the game was emphasised by a poor drop as Ireland were making inroads in the Kiwi half on 51 minutes, albeit Crowley was far from alone in making an unforced error of that description. Made one excellent conversion from the right-hand side.
Jamison Gibson-Park — 8: Conceded two penalties but was arguably Ireland’s most impactful defensive player, saving a couple of tries including one with an amazing, come-from-behind tackle on Damian McKenzie. Conducted Josh van der Flier’s score with typical expertise.
Forwards:
Andrew Porter — 7: Charge-down of Cortez Ratima’s box-kick gave Ireland an early foothold. Monstered a few Kiwi rucks and fared better in the scrum than the last fixture between these sides, albeit Ireland deem him to have been harshly judged on that occasion. Unlucky not to have been awarded a breakdown turnover in the first half.
Rónan Kelleher — 6: Was a threat to Kiwi ball at the breakdown without gaining proper reward. Strong performance in the loose but while Ireland’s couple of lineouts don’t fall solely at his door, that particular set-piece does tend to function a bit more slowly when Kelleher is on the line as opposed to Rob Herring or Dan Sheehan.
Finlay Bealham — 6: Was harshly adjudged by referee Nic Berry to have been “driving straight across” in a second-half scrum in which it looked for all the world as though Bealham had done enough to win a penalty. Conceded two more on the ground, leading the team with three.
Joe McCarthy — 7: Produced several guttural responses from the crowd on both sides of the ball. One second-half spillage was a momentum-killer, albeit McCarthy got absolutely crunched with a hit which dislodged the ball.
James Ryan — 7: Led the team in directly forcing two Kiwi turnovers on a day in which they were scarce.
Tadhg Beirne — 6: Had a similarly frustrating performance to virtually every Irish player on the field without producing the kind of signature moments for which he has become famous.
Josh van der Flier — 8: Was already Ireland’s best performer before his try, and continued to be thereafter.
Caelan Doris (captain) — 7: Made nine carries, a couple of them incisive, and made some huge defensive hits too. Tough criticism but should have been all over Nic Berry for the Kiwis’ closing of the gap in the lineout in the first half.
Replacements:
Rob Herring — 6: Best Test-level thrower in the country and that alone made a difference.
Cian Healy — n/a:
Tom O’Toole — n/a:
Iain Henderson — 5: A frustrating appearance off the bench on a day in which it made little impact across the board.
Peter O’Mahony — n/a:
Conor Murray — n/a:
Ciarán Frawley — 4: An error-strewn cameo in which everything went wrong for him. Will probably never again have one like it in either green or blue.
Jamie Osborne — :
First home loss since March 2021 and all 6/7/8s for the starting 15… really?!
@Andrew Slazenger: was thinking that myself like. I thought we were quite poor today but nobody was worse than average?
@Andrew Slazenger: yeah take 1 off most and you’d be way closer
Ratings extremely generous, makes it look like we played well, god help us if that was us playing well. Subtract ratings by at least 2 across the board
There’s a rumour going around that James Ryan actually played in this game.. A 7 for his completely anonymous performance last night is absolutely wild !
How you decided to give Lowe a 7 is mystifying. Kick after kick went astray, his defensive positioning was a total lottery and his kick-chase was embarrassing. One excellent kick (for which he craved applause) and one good joint tackle with Aki on Cane does not make up for the criminal stupidity of conceding a penalty when Ireland was in an excellent attacking position. He deserves a 4 at best.
Lowe deserves more – outstanding all game.
VdF was also great. Outplayed Cane & Looked back to his best.
Crowley also more of a 7, we were winning when he was subbed. His one knock on was off a poor pass to him. Defended v well too.
Doris struggled with captaincy again. Like in SA, he annoyed the ref & was told as much. he’s the right choice but he didn’t play to his usual level either.
V generous to our second rows. Ryan in particular was v poor. Lineout a disaster again. What is Paulie at? Beirne needs to go back to the second row. That was his least effective game in green for a long time.
V little attacking threat from Ringrose. Maybe the knock took more out of him. Osborne looked sharp coming on.
4 is v generous to Frawley. Media obsession with a bang average ten is baffling.
@Emmet Martin: should add Herring made an impact when he came on too. Very underrated player.
Puzzled by Gavan’s comment re Frawley – is it a genuine ‘dismissal’ of a one-off? Because anyone can make a mistake, but compounded errors, that’s a worry.
When there is an elephant in the room that no one, especially the journalists seems to address, frustration comes out, why has no one mentioned the weakness of both the line out and the maul and the fact that they are both under Paulie, Before this test we were told in addition to the lineout that he was having more of an influence on the maul, line out was embarrassing and maul went nowhere, just because you are a legend of a player, doesn’t mean it will carry over in coaching
@Stephen McMullan: ya can’t blame a coachs for players performing bad, not able to lock down a scrum, throw and make lineout calls is basic errors form players.
@Bob Ashley: Our lineout has been very mixed and O’Connell definitely deserves criticism.
Selection definitely a factor though, Herrings darts looked more accurate, couple of throws when he and POM were on the field looked safe as houses.
How they didn’t self police the gap was mind boggling. O’Mahony shoving their prop back in the 75 minute was first time all game but was too late at that stage.
Never easy doing the marking but there’s a case for dropping everyone a point bar JGP. I thought the ABs would nick it tonight but the Ireland errors and indiscipline really dragged the game down.
@Justin Robinson: Van Der Flier was excellent. The rest were very generous ratings. I think Crowley touched the ball 12 times, criminal for a 10.
@Carmine Lorenzo: not getting the ball from JGP had a lot to do with it. The game plan seemed to work around around him most of the time. Can’t quite figure it out
@Carmine Lorenzo: I got the same impression. Felt JGP for all his excellent scramble defence was not his best game, delivery was slow and attacking options forward dominated. This changed when Frawley came on.
Well well well, no new blood, no pace
James Lowe was terrible. He looks overweight.
@conor carroll: he’s always been a teletubby on the wing and I’m not his biggest fan but I thought he was excellent. Impacted the game positively and matched their physicality. Used his boot really effectively.
A but harsh on Ringrose. Extremely generous for most others.
Ratings, other than Keenan, JGP & JVdF way too high. Subtract at least 2 pts per player. We lost. We made multiple mistakes in possession. We didn’t get enough possession.