Off-target O'Gara squanders Irish victory chance

New Zealand 15 Ireland 6

Ireland showed how far their rugby has advanced over the past year or so by outplaying a first-choice All Blacks line-up for large periods of the opening Test here yesterday.

The hosts outscored the Irish by two tries to nil, but the visitors had enough possession to have won the game. Had their fly-half, Ronan O'Gara, been more accurate with his kicking, they could have come close to their first victory over New Zealand.

O'Gara fluffed two simple penalty attempts in the first half and saw an even easier effort drift wide soon after the interval. He was eventually replaced by Ulster's David Humphreys after 70 minutes but unfortunately for the Irish the substitution was too late.

Ireland clearly rattled the All Blacks, who are preparing for their annual Tri-Nations meetings with South Africa and Australia next month. The Kiwis committed 17 handling errors to Ireland's seven, and the turnovers in the rucks and mauls came at a rate of two to one in Ireland's favour.

But despite statistically outplaying their opponents and giving them a much-needed wake-up call following their 64-10 demolition of Italy last weekend, the Irish still conceded the game's only tries.

The first, which took the score to 10-3 in the 34th minute, came after the All Blacks finally won some decent possession at a scrum and their fly-half, Andrew Mehrtens, made a clean break to give his right wing, Doug Howlett, a clear run to the line.

The second, which gave the All Blacks a flattering nine-point margin of victory, came with only three minutes left on the clock. Howlett's replacement Jonah Lomu cleaned up a loose ball and brushed off two tackles to set up the move which led to the full-back Leon MacDonald going over wide on the left.

Reuben Thorne, the All Blacks' captain, was disappointed with his team's uninspired display. "It was really frustrating," he said. "The mistakes we made were unacceptable. The pressure they put on us was incredible."

Geordan Murphy almost scored for Ireland two minutes after the break when Brian O'Driscoll kicked to the corner. The Leicester wing managed to catch the ball but failed to touch it down cleanly and the try was disallowed.

O'Driscoll was a danger throughout and claimed the game's first points with a drop goal in the sixth minute. Ireland's other points came when O'Gara at last landed a penalty in the 56th minute.

The All Blacks' other points came from a first-half penalty by Mehrtens, who also converted Howlett's try. The two sides meet again in Auckland for the Second Test on Saturday.

New Zealand: L MacDonald; D Howlett (J Lomu, 68), T Umaga (D Gibson, 56), A Mauger, C Ralph; A Mehrtens, J Marshall; D Hewett (J McDonnell, 64), M Hammett, G Somerville, C Jack, N Maxwell, R Thorne (capt), R McCaw, S Robertson.

Ireland: G Dempsey; G Murphy, B O'Driscoll, J Kelly, J Bishopole; R O'Gara (D Humphreys, 70), P Stringer; R Corrigan, K Wood (capt), J Hayes, G Longwell, P O'Connell (M O'Kelly, 58), S Easterby, K Gleeson, A Foley.

Referee: J Jutge (France).