Heartbreak for Ireland in another Rugby World Cup
In 2019 Ireland were hammered by New Zealand at the quarter-final stage. Since then Andy Farrell has taken over as manager and achieved a historic test series win against New Zealand in 2022. Ireland continued to impress in 2023 as they beat both France and England to win the 6 Nations. Ireland came into the 2023 Rugby World Cup as number one ranked side in the world.
Ireland were drawn in a group with Romania, Tonga, South Africa and Scotland for the group stages. Ireland got off to a great start with bonus point wins against Romania and Tonga. Game three was against the 2019 Rugby World Cup Champions South Africa but Ireland managed to achieve a narrow win. Ireland’s win against South Africa was impressive considering it wasn’t their best performance.
The final game of the group stages for Ireland was a game against Scotland. Ireland were ruthless in the first half as they scored 26 points against Scotland. With this game over at half time Ireland were able to rest players which included Johnny Sexton. Ireland topped the group with 19 points and their reward was a quarter-final meeting with New Zealand.
Ireland had a couple of injury doubts in the lead up to the New Zealand but thankfully Mack Hansen and James Lowe were passed fit. The only big player that Ireland were without was second-row James Ryan but was replaced by Ian Henderson. The support of the Irish fans was amazing especially for the New Zealand game and the public were confident of a win. Ireland were trying to get a monkey off their back against New Zealand as they have never made it to a Rugby World Cup semi-final.
Ireland started the game very nervy with losing a couple of lineouts and were 13 nil down to New Zealand. Ireland responded and started to build phases and the confidence of Farrell’s team with turning down three points to go to the corner instead. Bundee Aki brought Ireland back into the game with a fantastic try. New Zealand went back in front through a try from Ardie Savea. Ireland were refusing to give up and scored another try through Jamison Gibson-Park.
Aaron Smith from New Zealand received a yellow card and Ireland went in one point behind at half-time. The first half was unbelievable with 35 points and four tries from both teams. Ireland started the second half with multiple phases but were not able to show this on the scoreboard. Ireland made a couple of defensive mistakes and New Zealand went eight ahead after a try from Will Jordan.
Ireland came back for more but Sexton was unable to reduce the deposit to five after a missed penalty. Ireland continued to go through the phases and achieved a penalty try through a deliberate mistake from Codie Taylor. Hooker Tayler received a yellow card for the penalty try. Ireland were on the verge of going in front and scoring their fourth try until a massive defensive effort by Jordie Barrett. Ireland needed to get in front to control the game and were very unlucky to be denied by inches.
New Zealand pushed their lead out to four and Ireland needed a try to win. Ireland went through five minutes of phases but the game came to an end after a knock on. The final score was New Zealand 28 Ireland 24. This quarter-final defeat hurted more due to been number one in the world. In both 2015 and 2019 Ireland didn’t show up in the quarter-final but this year was different and lost only due to small margins.
Even though Ireland are disappointed with going out at the quarter-final stage they should be proud as they captured the nation. It wasn’t the last dance for Sexton but he had an unbelievable career and one of the best out half’s in the modern era. It’s time to watch the semi-finals and hopefully both New Zealand and South Africa make it to the final. Ireland will start to rebuild and be ready to have another crack in getting past the quarter-final at Australia in 2027.