After weeks of hype, the Ireland rugby team were soundly beaten on Friday night by a good - but not great - All Blacks side at the Aviva.
There's nothing really at stake in these Autumn internationals, but this defeat does mean a re-positioning for Ireland at the top table of world rugby. The result means Ireland's 19 game unbeaten streak in Dublin is gone. So too is Ireland's hold on the top spot in the World Rugby world rankings.
It was a curious and unexpected Ireland performance, strewn with errors and penalties.
There were some obvious excuses. It was Ireland's first game since that famous win over South Africa in the second Test in Durban in July.
Meanwhile the All Blacks had a bruising 80 minutes in Twickenham last Saturday to warm them up.
Trying to explain why Ireland performed so poorly is Andy Farrell's job from here. It was also the task of the pundits in their post-match analysis.
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'Air of entitlement' about Ireland's performance v All Blacks
The Virgin Media panel definitely noticed something askew in the Ireland performance. Most interestingly, Shane Horgan said Ireland were 'celebrating at the wrong times' and identified James Lowe's celebration of his brilliant second half 50:22 as prime example of this.
The celebration in question came in the 72nd minute, with Ireland trailing by 10 and desperate for any spark of life. Lowe fired a rocket of a banana kick over Damian Mackenzie's head, which bounded out to touch for a 50:22. The kick woke up the crowd and Lowe duly celebrated.
The celebration was perhaps a bit presumptuous however, given how poorly Ireland's lineout had been functioning. The subsequent attack amounted to nothing and Ireland would not score again.
About the incident he would say:
Lowe remarkably, ten points down, celebrating the kick like, you know, they've just won the game. Maybe there is a little slight mental issue there [with the team]...There seemed something not quite right with Ireland. Celebrating at the wrong times, you don't want to be old school and say you can never celebrate but when you're 10 points down, what are you doing celebrating a kick? Get down there, win the lineout, set up a play, score a try, and then celebrate it.
Meanwhile Matt Williams Ireland said played with an 'air of entitlement on Friday.
The general rugby community for this particular game had an air of entitlement about it. New Zealand have lost their shine, they're not who they are. Mate if you go out against New Zealand, you have to establish your foundation. They went out and played dry weather football on a wet night. This is a great Irish side and I'm a huge supporter of them, but on this one particular game, I don't think they went out and established that base that you've got to do every time against great teams...They were playing like they were 10 points ahead from the first minute.
Rob Kearney pushed back on Williams's assertion, saying he saw it more as overconfidence than entitlement. Whatever it was, there was something seriously off with Ireland on Friday: their worst performance in green since covid.
We'll have a clearer idea whether the All Blacks loss is an aberration or the start of a perhaps inevitable decline in a week's time, when Argentina roll into the Aviva.
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