Diamonds are forever – at least the three-man triangle with Tadhg Furlong receiving and Johnny Sexton completing the diamond in behind.
Anger is an unreliable guide to action as it is not informed by wisdom. Once the physicality washed away the wisdom on display in the Aviva was a wonder to behold. In many ways, the Irish set-up is simple.
An Irish pod of three with Furlong at the front. Hidden in behind him is typically Sexton, making up the diamond.
Outside them are usually two Irish forwards in tune with the two centres. An obvious diamond led by Furlong with two makeshift triangles at 12 and 13. That’s it! From it so much can flow.
Pick any sequence of play you like and observe the myriad of options and plays. One minute Furlong looks to carry into traffic then pulls back to Sexton who then can pick and choose his option. On other occasions Rory Best carried looking to offload but took contact.
In the opening half I counted 12 variations to this one play. The All Blacks counted too but were totally tricked by the time the diamond produced gold.
As Ireland fielded, Read drifted into the All Black midfield defensive line with one intention; to cut dead Ireland's possession-filled exit
The All Blacks also have their version where the brute that is Brodie Retallick carries like Furlong. They then have slight variant options out wide but Ireland had the measure of these plays.
Yes, the pace of the All Black recycle placed huge pressure on the Irish defence, forcing some divine inspiration from Peter O'Mahony et al, but that defence ultimately managed the All Blacks. So much so that world class players became sloppy players. Read erred, the Retallick and Sam Whitelock partnership was totally outclassed by Devin Toner and James Ryan.
This is not getting away from reality, but the psychological impact of Toner and Ryan’s performance will reverberate through Irish rugby for years. Add in O’Mahony and the rest and the psychological value is beyond measurement.
The All Blacks brought some interesting tactical challenges to Ireland. They kicked off (quite regularly) by splitting their resources with Kieran Read on the right-hand side and Beauden Barrett electing to kick off away from him and into the Keith Earls corner.
Irish pressure
As Ireland fielded, Read drifted into the All Black midfield defensive line with one intention; to cut dead Ireland's possession-filled exit. This forced Kiran Marmion into an aerial exit through the box kick. Clever play from the All Blacks to stunt a keystone of Ireland' play, but where else did they manage a similar result?
I was so looking forward to watching Barrett at 10 and Damian McKenzie at fullback as they rotated their roles and skills to manipulate the Irish around.
They did, for a while, in the opening half where McKenzie would offer an option around the corner then pop up as an outhalf. In the 12th minute alone McKenzie interchanged a beautiful range of rugby that afforded Barrett time and space to select his shots and find that precious space behind Earls and Rob Kearney.
But then after a period this axis fell silent. Why? The relentless Irish assault exposed these great New Zealand rugby players to what we mere mortals experience every day – mistakes.
These mistakes (Read's handling error, their scrum platform, their incessant infringement and hands at breakdowns and their creeping defensive line) all sprang from relentless Irish pressure. Did Wayne Barnes leave his yellow card at home?
That the try-scoring machine, Rieko Ioane, was limited to such a peripheral role is telling. Yes he carried seven times, only two behind Ireland's Jacob Stockdale, but the difference in impact was, well, obvious. The Irish possession stakes and defensive effort is worthy of reflection over coming days but Ioane made little impact because of it.
Take the example where Ryan chopped Read down in the fifth minute with the perfect combination of CJ Stander immediately jackaling over the ball to steal the penalty. This precision, timing and teamwork is phenomenal to watch and it limited Ioane.
Structure pre-programmed
The learned helplessness experienced against Argentina was managed to the full against the All Blacks where Rory Best’s second throw required a much deeper throwing arc over Whitelock to land on Peter O’Mahony.
Toner’s lineout management is impossible to quantify and when Ryan can get to that level he’ll be some performer. Variables were introduced late on and the lineout suffered but the first part was hugely successful; management of the resources.
In the end the Irish diamond remains as important as the box kick. On Saturday the diamond proved the difference as the box kick varied in quality. No doubt everyone has seen the lineout that was won from O’Mahony’s breakdown penalty where a fatigued clear-out from the All Blacks helped him get the steal.
O’Mahony won the subsequent lineout off the top to Marmion, who fired to the new iteration of the Irish diamond; Sexton with a pod outside him Josh van der Flier, Stander with Bundee Aki in the back.
Right on contact Sexton pulls back to Aki with the entire All Black defensive structure pre-programmed by the 47 previous minutes of Irish tactics. And like Chris Ashton’s try against New Zealand a fortnight earlier, Ireland rewound to Stockdale and there was nobody at home!
