Late charge secures All Black win

The signs looked ominous for a huge All Blacks win, but just as quickly they faded when Luke McAlister missed the conversion in what was to be a tough first half where he failed with two of three attempts.

For Irish flyhalf Ronan O’Gara, the kicking could not have been better as he started with the conversion of O’Driscoll’s try which put Ireland in front 7-5 in the eighth minute.

It was a simple move which found a hole in the All Blacks defensive pattern when a cut out pass put O’Driscoll through a huge gap between Nonu and Joe Rokocoko.

O’Gara extended the lead with a 44-metre penalty two minutes later, and added two more before halftime to a lone penalty for McAlister for Ireland to lead 16-8 at the turn.

The All Blacks started the second half with a try to Mils Muliaina, after Rokocoko came off the blind wing to create an overlap.

When McAlister’s conversion narrowed the gap to one point, Ireland came back just as quickly when a neat overhand pass from O’Gara put Andrew Trimble over and O’Gara added the extra two points to have Ireland ahead 23-15.

But, now McAlister had his kicking boots on, he slotted three more penalties to lift the All Blacks to a 24-23 lead.

Nonu finally found a gap in the Irish backline when he swatted aside the smallest player on the field, scrumhalf Peter Stringer, to put Troy Flavell over under the posts.

McAlister added the conversion and a fourth penalty to put the All Blacks out to a handy, if fortunate, 34-23 win.