'The All Blacks were fantastic... they put us on the back foot and never let us get off that again'
Retiring captain Rory Best paid an emotional tribute to Ireland rugby after a clinical performance from New Zealand ended their World Cup dream in Tokyo.
Aaron Smith scored two of the All Blacks’ seven tries in a comprehensive 46-14 quarter-final victory to set up a semi-final showdown against England.
Defeat against the back-to-back champions signalled the end of Best’s international career, while head coach Joe Schmidt will be leaving his role.
Best, 37, struggled to hold back tears in his post-match pitchside interview. “I would just like to thank this unbelievable Irish crowd. It started off with an incredible atmosphere and they were brilliant,” he said.
“But the All Blacks were fantastic tonight. We felt we prepared well all week, we felt we had a game plan, we felt we had enough in our armoury to beat them. They just started off out of the blocks hard at us, put us on the back foot and, like good sides do, they never let us get off that again.”
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Best paid tribute to the efforts of Schmidt to help move Irish rugby forward. “I have loved every minute of it, the support I have got from the fans home and away and the coaching staff,” he said on ITV1.
“Joe Schmidt as well who is moving on, he brought my game particularly to another level when he came here and a massive credit must go to him.”
Schmidt felt his side gave New Zealand too many “access points” into the game. “We turned the ball over, but we missed opportunities to get into their zone and really put some pressure on,” he said.
“We kind of gave them a leg up and, when they get a points differential like they had, you are chasing the game. When you chase the game, you take risks that, if you are not executing perfectly, they’re going to capitalise on the back of it.”
Schmidt admits Ireland had been somewhat “flat” since earning their place as the number one side in the world, but that he leaves them “in a really good place”. He said: “When you reach a height, there is always a risk that you’re going to just slip off that height a little bit.
“I don’t think it was any complacency or anything else. We made a target of ourselves, certainly teams went after us a little bit more. We had been able to kind of sneak up on New Zealand a couple of times, and sneak up on a few other teams.”
All Blacks forward Brodie Retallik felt his side produced an “awesome spectacle” as he turned his attention towards the clash with England. "We have only seen bits and bobs (of England), and I saw a bit of the Australia game, but they are playing with great skill,” he said.
“They have great outside backs with a good forward pack, but we will knuckle down to playing them this week.”
- Press Association
WATCH: Former Australian international Matt Giteau sits down with RugbyPass in the latest episode of Rugby World Cup Memories
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Spot on Ben. Dead right. Havili looked great at 10. Easily the highest rugby IQ of any NZ player these days. Getting a kick charged down is a result of getting used to adjusting your depth to the line at 10, which he will sort out with time. But other than that it was an outstanding first effort in that position this year. I think the NZ media has misunderstood this directive from Razor. Havili might rank behind B Barrett this year, but Beuden is 33 this month and won't last much longer. DMaC is great but flaky and not really a test match animal (his efforts in Dunedin versus Aus last year for example). If Razor can't have Mounga, DMaC is too unstructured for Razor (and is just too small for test rugby). Havili will end up our first choice first five, and in partnership with Jodie will be excellent. Two triple threat operators in tandem, and big bodies and tough tacklers to boot. Jordoe will be the ABs goal kicker. I am an Aucklander and Blues (and Warriors) fan, but Havili at 10 is going to be sensational in time… he can be the best first five in the world by the end of this year. No question.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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