Definitely didn’t play as well as against SA
Look at this dickhead
You jinxed it!
I disagreed with the lack of penalty towards the end of the Wales for the head contact on Tompkins. You give that and even without it having to be a yellow card then it’s maybe enough for wales to hold on. But you cannot really feel that aggrieved by it because of the clarity of decision making and communication from the refs
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Exactly. Even if you disagree with the decision, at least the referee explains his thought process and everyone gets an explanation.
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Gutting defeat that ends a great Ireland team. Lots of talent in the pipeline, but there will be a changing of the guard before the next. As you say, just a few too many mistakes in the first half, and near-heroic defence from NZ in the second.
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Sad!
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That wouldn’t be hard, the bar is low. Try as he did, he couldn’t hand Ireland enough of an advantage to get the win, even with 2 sin bins. That “deliberate knock on” yellow card was much like the Jones red card with VAR pretty much helping Barnes make up his mind.
What I admired the most about the refereeing was even when the decision was wrong the players bit their lip and got on with it
He could still be right.
They’re on course for a clean sweep of loses 
It really is. Just a few changes to the lyrics, but everything else is the same.
No problem, football songs are nearly all adaptations of older tunes. That’s part of the fun of them.
Anyway. I’m still grumpy.
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That final passage of play went 37 phases. That’s nuts. Everyone dead on their feet at the end of it.
Accuracy again. Ireland had their opportunities but couldn’t take them. The All Blackd however nailed every one of theirs.
100% agree with comments above on the refereeing. I’m nearing the point where I can’t watch football anymore because of the refereeing and associated attitude that comes with it from the PGMOL and the PL.
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Nooo nooooo!
And the world’s number 1 team has never made the semis once.
Beating the All Blacks in NZ this (northern) summer was not a good sign. Teams at that level are hard to beat twice in a row.
Although, unless it was a fluke, you should be going into the game full of confidence.
TBF it was a hard fought game, small margins.
Both teams had all the confidence you could ask for, I think. Barrett doesn’t get his knees under the ball, and I think Ireland wins that with a late penalty to add to the score. Small margins indeed. But I think the All Blacks had a bit more desperation to their defensive play, knowing they can and have lost to that Ireland side.
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Yep but, NZ and South Africa more often than not win the games that matters.
That tradition is why each incarnation plays with such desperation in the moments that win the games that matter.