Thrilling Ireland charge to another victory over New Zealand

Ireland beat New Zealand for the third time in the past five years in a stunning 29-20 victory at Lansdowne Road on Saturday.

The Irish ran in tries from New Zealand-born wing James Lowe, Ronan Kelleher and Caelan Doris in a gripping Test in front of a raucous 51,000 crowd.

Andy Farrell’s side will go into their final November Test with Argentina next weekend on a run of seven successive victories.

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Their previous wins against the All Blacks came in 2016 and 2018 although the New Zealanders hammered them in their last meeting in the 2019 World Cup quarter-final.

Irish captain Johnny Sexton rose to his feet to applaud as his replacement Joey Carbery landed a penalty in the final minute.

“We dominated large parts of the first half and we were clinical,” said Sexton.

“It is a special day and these are special players.

‘It’s amazing’

“It’s starting to click but we have to keep our feet on the ground.”

Lowe was almost moved to tears — several of the All Blacks team are direct contemporaries of his.

“It’s amazing. Never in a million years did I think this day would come. I dreamt of being an All Black as a kid,” he told Channel Four.

“I gave up that dream as I wasn’t good enough and to come over here, to hear my native country anthem and stand in front of the haka, it’s a childhood dream.”

Sexton is a marked man whenever he takes to the pitch but referee Luke Pearce had seen enough after New Zealand hooker Codie Taylor hit the Irish playmaker late on two occasions and sent him to the sin bin.

Sexton put the resulting penalty into the corner for a line-out instead of going for goal.

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It paid off with the Irish scoring a try as Hugo Keenan found Lowe, who did well to touch down in the corner.

Sexton failed to convert to leave the hosts 5-0 up but with the crowd fired up.

The All Blacks got on the board shortly afterwards as Jordie Barrett landed a penalty.

The visitors were taking a few hard hits of their own and Beauden Barrett had to go off for a head injury assessment after he tackled Andrew Conway. Richie Mo’unga came on.

The crowd were off their feet when Tadhg Furlong went over but Kelleher was deemed to have made a double movement in the move and the relieved visitors were awarded a penalty.

They made full use of their let-off, striking back as Ethan Blackadder ran through a wide-open Irish defence and passed to Taylor who touched down. Jordie Barrett converted to give New Zealand a 10-5 half-time lead.

All Blacks rattled

The hosts came out in buoyant spirit in the second half and Kelleher, aided by Iain Henderson giving him a helpful push, went over to tie the scores but Sexton’s conversion came back off the post.

Ireland kept up the pressure, Doris nimbly side-stepping Taylor outside the 22 and then running it in to be mobbed by his team-mates. This time Sexton converted to make it 17-10.

The All Blacks were visibly rattled, exemplified by David Havili deliberately knocking-on Jamison Gibson Park’s pass and Sexton slotted over the penalty to put Ireland 20-10 ahead. 

However, Will Jordan settled them a bit as he combined superbly with Rieko Ioane to touch down under the posts and Jordie Barrett converted to bring the All Blacks with three points.

Sexton departed shortly afterwards and the first thing his replacement, New Zealand-born Carbery, did was kick a penalty successfully, making the score 23-17 with 15 minutes remaining.

The Irish were let off the hook when Akira Ioane went over but it was ruled out because of a forward pass, but Barrett knocked over a penalty to leave the visitors three points adrift.

Lowe has been praised for improving his defence and he showed it when he stopped an All Black attack and the Irish were awarded a penalty.

Carbery kicked from 50 metres out, and ran back clapping with joy at the decisive advantage as the crowd roared.