Never has an Irish defeat felt so devastating. For the home players most of all, there could be no solace, not even from a wonderful performance, and likewise for the home crowd. The Aviva having rocked to its foundations like never before on a Sunday, or Saturday for that matter, the ensuing, quiet solemn march from the ground felt almost funereal.

There couldn’t even be any solace in the knowledge that Ireland’s high octane, highly committed and highly skilled performance – yielding a jaw-dropping triple whammy of tries in the first 18 minutes – had forced the All Blacks to conjure a remarkable comeback win, their decisive third try coming a minute and 24 seconds after the match clock had turned red.

Leading 22-17, Johnny Sexton had fractionally missed a 74th minute penalty to give Ireland a two-score lead. Even then, to a crescendo of support, Ireland were recycling the ball with 27 seconds of time left, whereupon Nigel Owens penalised Jack McGrath for going off his feet; only the fifth full penalty against Ireland.

There was almost a grim inevitability about the way the All Blacks calmly went through the phases before replacement hooker Dane Coles took Aaron Cruden’s long pass and offloaded out of the tackle for replacement fullback Ryan Crotty to score. That drew the sides level, a premature Irish charge affording Cruden the chance to atone for his initially wayward conversion and ensure the All Blacks of an historic, 14th win in 14 tests this year by 24-22. (They could also thank Kieran Read for cornerflagging Rob Kearney for his try, as Sexton hit the post with the conversion from wide out.)

So, one kick from the biggest win in Irish rugby history, and then just two or three rucks away from immortality. Instead, it probably goes down as Ireland’s most heartbreaking defeat, certainly right up there with Michael Lynagh’s match-winning try at the death in the 1991 World Cup quarter-final on the same ground.

Tempered the recession
Damn and blast it, Irish rugby and the country could have done with it. It might even have tempered the recession, for a little while anyway, albeit after a few additional sick notes today. This was closer than any of the previous 27 attempts, including the draw, but after it you really do wonder if Ireland can ever beat these All Blacks.

“Yeah, it’s certainly up there,” said a crestfallen Joe Schmidt when asked if this was the most disappointing defeat of his career. “To be honest I don’t think it’s about me, I think it’s about the team and for me the disappointment is shared by the players. It’s fairly heavy disappointment. Obviously as a coach you’re gutted but the amount of effort they expended out there was about the maximum you could ask of them. Not to get a result that was in our hands is pretty devastating.”

Schmidt admitted that the fatigue caused by such a huge effort may have taken its toll, as did an injury list which saw Rory Best depart early with a suspected broken radius bone in his right arm, and Brian O’Driscoll before the hour with suspected concussion. For O’Driscoll this meant yet more unfinished business and unfinished for good now. Sexton too, almost inevitably, didn’t quite see out the 80, and he was going to be called ashore with a tightened hamstring even before he missed that penalty.

Winning, much like rugby itself, is in the New Zealand DNA, less so the Irish DNA. Maybe a seed of doubt was sewn in Irish minds while also giving the All Blacks’ a lifeline when Sexton missed that penalty. The day before, the New Zealand rugby league team had drawn level with the game’s last play against England at Wembley in the Rugby League World Cup semi-final to win the game with the last conversion. Uncanny.

Both the All Blacks’ captain Richie McCaw and their coach Steve Hansen accepted that their goose was cooked if Sexton had landed that penalty. It will haunt him for ever more. Such is the lot of a place-kicker but like all of them he shouldn’t be too harsh on himself.

Sexton had mixed his game up superbly, tackling himself to a standstill, and Ireland wouldn’t have got within an ass’s roar of winning this game without him. More unluckily, he had also seen his third conversion from wide out on the left rebound from the upright. The margins were tiny in this one, and they were plenty of them. Besides, Cruden shanked an even easier penalty before the hour mark. It happens.

Hansen was also fulsome in his praise of what he described as a “sensational Irish performance. They certainly rattled us.” He added: “I think it’s really important, that you don’t see the All Blacks as not having turned up today. The All Blacks turned up, but so did Ireland. When you force mistakes, and when you’re good enough to score from them you put the team suffering under pressure and you fill your own jersey up with self-belief.

“We expect them to be tough, every time. But sometimes they don’t believe they are as tough as they are. All of a sudden we saw a team way beyond what we’d seen for a while . . . Had they kicked the goal it was all over, but they gave us a sniff and that’s what makes us coaches very proud of them, because it’s special to produce that.”

One-off performances
In almost beating New Zealand, Schmidt expressed the hope that this is not the first page of a New Ireland, as he couldn't take more defeats like this. Nevertheless, the trick now is in reproducing this for the opening Six Nations joust at home to Scotland and then throughout the tournament. A la France, Ireland have the capacity for big one-off performances against the odds and Schmidt warned that France had an unbeaten November before finishing last in the Six Nations.

“This four weeks was about the Six Nations,” said the coach, but to some degree how they regroup there hinges upon what happens the players in the interim, “and it’s hard to pick up where you’ve left off because for me it’s still unknown territory. Plotting these four weeks was unknown territory as well.”

“But I feel I know a little bit more about it now. The players know a little bit more about where we were looking to get to and I think we showed a little bit of structure, attack-wise and defensively, today, and we certainly showed a lot of character. To push the best team in the world, the best team there’s been in the world for the last few years as close as we did, while devastating, is a small vote of confidence for us. The challenge is to get everyone back together again and redeliver what was probably a benchmark performance today.”