All Blacks v Ireland Stat Attack

The All Blacks beat Ireland this past weekend. Some facts and figures from the test by Peter Marriott.

New Zealand v Ireland in Dublin: Won 23-13

New Zealand and Ireland first met in a test at Lansdowne Road in Dublin on 25 November 1905. New Zealand

won the match 15-0. The two sides have now met on 38 occasions: New Zealand has won 32 matches to Ireland’s five. There has been one drawn match: 10-10 at Dublin in 1973.

Ireland’s first win did not come until the 29th match between the two sides. It was at a neutral venue, Soldiers Field in Chicago on 5 November 2016: it had taken Ireland 110 years and 346 days to break their duck against the All Blacks. Since then they have won a further four times and the score between the two sides in their last 10 encounters is 5-5.

Ireland has hosted New Zealand 19 times: all matches have been played in Dublin. The All Blacks have won 16 of those matches and Ireland two. There was the draw in 1973. Ireland’s two wins were the two matches immediately prior to this one: in 2018 (16-9) and 2021 (29-20).

Ireland played the first of their home internationals at Lansdowne Park at Dublin in March 1878 and with a few exceptions played solely at that ground until 2005 when it was rebuilt and renamed Aviva Stadium which opened in 2010. In between times they hosted the All Blacks at Croke Park in 2008.

This was the All Black’s 250th test win away from home. They have played 349 matches outside New Zealand at a winning percentage of 71.6%. Their overall winning percentage is 76.7%.

The All Blacks played Australia at (the then named) Lansdowne Road during the 1991 Rugby World Cup Semi-final losing 6-16.

The All Blacks kicked six penalties against Ireland. The last time they bettered six in a match was the seven kicked by Beauden Barrett against the British & Irish Lions at Wellington in 2017, a match the visitors won 24-21.

New Zealand scored just the one try against Ireland. It was the sixth time they have done so and so far they have won every match. In all tests the All Blacks have scored one try on 113 occasions for 67 wins, 41 losses and five draws.

During the match against Ireland, the All Blacks scored their 9,000th first-half point in all matches. They have now actually scored 9003 points and with a total of 9,565 in the second half their aggregate in 649 matches is 18,568 points.

For the second time this year the All Blacks failed to score a first-half try. Amazingly this has happened in 163 of their 649 tests and this was the sixth time against Ireland. Australia has kept the All Blacks tryless in thefirst half on 52 occasions and South Africa has done so 40 times. Among their other opponents France has achieved it 15 times and England 14 times.

The last time New Zealand beat Ireland in successive matches anywhere was back in 2013 when in fact they won 22 in a row stretching back to 1974.

Ireland’s 13 points is their lowest score against the All Blacks since they lost 9-21 at Dublin in 2016.

For Ireland this was also their first loss in Dublin after 19 consecutive wins, a sequence which began after losing 13-15 to France in 2021.

The All Blacks 23 contained four overseas-born players whereas Ireland had nine born outside their country.

Three were from Australia, three were from New Zealand (Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe), and one each from Northern Ireland, South Africa and the United States.

The All Blacks starting XV totalled 678 caps between them. Ireland’s starting XV totalled 637 caps. The All Black bench had 220 caps whilst the Ireland reserves had 498 caps between them. Three of their reserves had each made over 100 test appearances.

Stephen Perofeta, who was on the bench, did not make an appearance during the match.

Will Jordan scored the only All Black try in the 69th minute. It was his 37th in 39 appearances and he joins Jonah Lomu (63 tests) and Rieko Ioane (79 tests) in eighth-equal place on the all-time try-scorers list.

Jordan now has five tries against Ireland which equals the All Black record for most tries scored against that side: Frank Bunce and Doug Howlett also scored five tries.

Will Jordan has played Ireland five times and scored a try in each one of those games.

Damian McKenzie kicked 18 points (six penalties) to take his total in 59 matches to 299 points. He is on the cusp of becoming just the seventh All Black to score 300 points in test matches. Jordie Barrett is right behind him on 297 points.

McKenzie’s fifth kick hit the left-hand upright to bring to an end 11 successful kicks in a row over his last three matches.

Damian McKenzie was made Man of the Match in Dublin.

Andrew Mehrtens holds the All Black record for most points in a match against Ireland: 33 at Dublin in 1997comprised of one try, five conversions and six penalties. Mehrtens and McKenzie co-hold the All Black record for most penalties kicked in a test against Ireland.

Jordie Barrett was issued with a yellow card just before halftime. It was the ninth card to be issued to an All Black player in 2024.
Nine All Blacks played in their first match against Ireland. They were Asafo Aumua, George Bell, Caleb Clarke, Samipeni Finau, Cortez Ratima, Cameron Roigard, Wallace Sititi, Mark Tele’a and Pasilio Tosi, Stephen Perofeta would have been the 10th.

Jack Crowley scored his first points (eight) against the All Blacks. It was his first test against the visitors although he had been on the bench in last year’s Rugby World Cup Quarter-final but did not take the field.

Two other players also appeared for the first time against the All Blacks: Ciaran Frawley and Jamie Osborne.
Josh van der Flier scored his 11th test try and second against the All Blacks.

Nic Berry controlled his seventh test involving the All Blacks. His first match in charge was the drawn test against South Africa at Wellington in 2019 followed by a loss to Australia at Brisbane in 2020. All five matches since then have been won by New Zealand.

Sky commentator Grant Nisbett called his 350th All Black test match, 40 years after making his “debut” against France at Christchurch in 1984.

Before the match there was a moment of sustained applause to remember the recent passing of two former Irish test players Ronnie Dawson and Tony O’Reilly. Dawson played one match for Ireland against New Zealand in 1963 but O’Reilly never did. However, both played four tests against the All Blacks in 1959 when the British Lions toured this country. Dawson captained the side.

New Zealand’s record in all test matches is: played 649, won 498 (76.7%), lost 128 and drawn 23.

The All Blacks play France this coming weekend.