On a dull Dublin evening it was the All Blacks who won the highly anticipated World Cup rematch against Ireland, winning 23-13.
Ireland were never at the races in the Aviva, making some uncharacteristic handling errors and they found it hard to get their multi-phase attack going which has been so effective in recent years.
The match quickly became a scrappy affair which was won in the set pieces and it was clear that Ireland were missing Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong in the front row as New Zealand got the rub of the green in the scrums and were able to disrupt and steal multiple Irish lineouts.
Besides the 10 minutes when Jordie Barrett was off the pitch for a sin bin, Ireland really looked second best and suffered their first defeat at the Aviva Stadium since 2021 when France beat them in the Six Nations in front of an empty stadium.
Reiko Ioane Gets One Last Dig In Instagram Caption
One of the major talking points heading into this clash was how Reiko Ioane would be received by the Irish crowd after Johnny Sexton revealed their exchange of words following the 2023 World Cup quarterfinal in his autobiography.
After the snippet was revealed Ioane was quick to defend himself on Instagram and heading into the match he was public enemy number 1 among the Irish faithful.
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Besides one thunderous hit from Garry Ringrose on the centre in the first half, there wasn’t much atmosphere around Ioane and he quietly had a solid game, not making too many errors but not making too many headlines with his performance.
𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗠! 💥
What a hit by Garry Ringrose on Rieko Ioane!#IREvNZL | #AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/NV7wHrEOqu
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 8, 2024
However Ioane captured a lot of attention post match when he quickly took to Instagram once again to throw one last dig. He posted a series of photos of him leading the Haka, with the caption “Put that in the book.”
Ioane was the All Blacks kaea (leader) of the Haka for the first time in Dublin as both of the usual kaeas, Cody Taylor and TJ Perenara were out of the matchday squad.
Speaking with Sky Sports New Zealand after the match Ioane spoke about the honour it is to lead the Haka.
I was obviously more nervous for the kaea role and leading that haka than I was about the game,
With such great leaders like TJ (Perenara), Codie (Taylor) to help me out, it came pretty comfortable and pretty easy tonight.
When it comes to game days, I don’t let the emotion dictate my week. I love the spectacle of rugby and what I can influence to create. Feelings were hurt, stuff was said but I’m just here to play footy and win games.
Reiko Ioane also spoke about the match itself and how it was won in the forwards and reflected on his first ever victory in Dublin.
Extremely scrappy, a lot of it was won in the tight stuff so our close carries, our tight tackles. It was a bit of messy ruck.
But anytime you can come here and win, which is my first time, we’ll take it and we’re so happy.
Honestly, just pure joy, elation, I was so happy. We’ve come off a short week so we’ve already had some adversity leading into the week, but just to see the boys grind through… it was scrappy, we had a yellow card, a man down and we had a couple of things go against us.
But this group is so tight and we’re really starting to see the fruits of our foundations that we laid at the start of the year. I’m just proud of the boys, happy to be an All Black.
This may be the end of the Reiko Ioane-Ireland debacle but it has only added another chapter to the every-growing rivalry between the two nations.
READ ALSO: The New Zealand Media Reaction To ‘Rusty’ Ireland v ‘Classic’ All Blacks
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