Ireland 18 New Zealand 38:THE LIBRARY finally became a colosseum on Saturday evening as the Aviva awoke from its ticket-priced slumber, and it will be a long while before the ground sees a game of such high intensity, high tempo and high skill again.

A week ago Ireland had been pedantic and one dimensional, but here, with better conditions and refereeing, they set wider targets at pace, came on to the ball from deep and used the full width of the pitch.

With their first source of set-piece possession Ireland showed more ambition than they had for much of the day against Samoa, opting for quick, off-the-top ball to launch David Wallace up the middle.

From there, a quick recycle saw them go wide right where Brian O’Driscoll offloaded to Wallace, the pity being he had no support and felt obliged to kick ahead. Ireland were here to play.

At outhalf, Jonathan Sexton – buoyed by a 52-metre penalty which energised himself, the team and the crowd – landed three difficult kicks and passed superbly off either hand.

Ireland looked to run with width off turnovers and used Eoin Reddan’s pace on the wrap-around off a scrum. Alas, he opted for a chip ahead rather than a difficult flat pass to Tommy Bowe – although you have to say it was superb defending by Mils Muliaina – and then Gordon D’Arcy missed with a drop goal.

Later on, Keith Earls will wonder if he should have slid in lower and earlier when tackled into touch at the corner flag by Corey Jane after sustained Irish pressure.

By contrast, the All Blacks punished nearly every Irish mistake. When Mick O’Driscoll did well to paw back a wayward throw from Rory Best, Sexton couldn’t gather the ball when it bounced wickedly off the deck. A scrum and six rucks later, outhalf Dan Carter kicked three points after Cian Healy played the ball off his feet.

When Brian O’Driscoll kicked out on the full, cue a scrum: another five phases and another Carter penalty, against Bowe for not releasing in the tackle.

When Donncha O’Callaghan misjudged a Carter restart for Anthony Boric to gather all too easily, eight energy-sapping phases later Reddan was penalised for not releasing and Carter kicked another three points.

When Rob Kearney spilled the ball in contact, Healy was pinged for going down at the scrum and – you know the routine.

It was remorseless and ruthless, and when Wallace took the ball into contact in the 36th minute – with Ireland 13-12 ahead and on the front foot – and spilled it, you almost knew what would happen next.

Sure enough, a punishing dozen phases later, when D’Arcy counter-rucked and forced the ball to go to ground, Healy didn’t step forward with O’Callaghan and Boric rumbled and reached for the line from Andy Ellis’ pop.

And so it continued. When Seán Cronin threw crooked the All Blacks, adjusting their attack to go wider quicker, went to the right wing and, helped by masterful footwork by Ma’a Nonu, to the left, before going right again for Jerome Kaino to put Kieran Read over.

Within four minutes, Jane took a fine box kick by Reddan on one touchline and, helped by touch judge Carlo Damasco missing his second blatant forward pass by the All Blacks, Sam Whitelock scored from Richie McCaw’s pass. Game over.

And if the All Blacks don’t punish you on the scoreboard they do so physically as they take you through multiple phases.

All in all, restarts were the most hotly contested and influential source of possession in the game. Ireland could trace the concession of two three-pointers and about another 40 tackles or so to their failure to claim five New Zealand restarts.

In this, like everything else, the All Blacks don’t play the percentages: all of Carter’s restarts were left hanging just beyond the 10-metre line with all the pack chasing and looking for scraps off the deck.

Mind you, Ireland also could trace their first penalty to Healy rag-dolling Mils Muliaina off a restart, and the game’s opening try came from Jamie Heaslip gathering Kearney’s tap down. This time, eight phases later – with Cronin and Wallace injecting real go-forward ball – Stephen Ferris scored off a lovely delayed pass by Heaslip.

However, it was instructive to see what happened when Sexton went for a repeat up the middle with Ireland’s next restart. McCaw simply said “outta my way” and assumed complete control with an athletic take. He did the same at the start of the second half. That’s leadership as well as brilliance.

Like Kearney, Wallace will attract criticism for a couple of uncharacteristic knock-ons in contact, but credit has to go to the way the Kiwis attacked the ball in the tackle, and even McCaw spilled a couple.

Ultimately, for Ireland to draw the last half-hour five-all was a monumental effort.

The bench made a big impact: Cronin added real dynamism and Peter Stringer increased Ireland’s tempo by another notch or two.

Such is the ripple effect of having Stringer on board everyone else knows they have to act more quickly in thought and deed.

Amid such company, it’s saying something that Brian O’Driscoll’s pick-up and try was the high point of this match in terms of skill, not to mention his latest 80 minutes of astonishing work-rate and bravery.

Of course, the All Blacks didn’t let up and, off a quick throw, worked another try for Read, almost becoming their third most important and influential performer.

The surprise was that Carter didn’t make it eight-from-eight with his final touchline conversion to equal Jonny Wilkinson as the game’s most prolific points scorer in Test history.

But, as McCaw said, “next week”.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins: Carter pen 0-3; 11: Sexton pen 3-3; 16: Carter pen 3-6; 26: Sexton pen 6-6; 29: Carter pen 6-9; 31: Ferris try, Sexton con 13-9; 40: Boric try, Carter con 13-19 (half-time 13-19); 45: Read try, Carter con 13-26; 49: Whitelock try, Carter con 13-33; 57: O'Driscoll try 18-33; 80: Read try 18-38.

IRELAND: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), G D'Arcy (Leinster), L Fitzgerald (Leinster); J Sexton (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), T Court (Ulster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), M O'Driscoll (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: S Cronin (Connacht) for Best (22 mins), K Earls (Munster) for Fitzgerald (47 mins), D Toner (Leinster) for O'Driscoll (50 mins), J Hayes (Munster) for Court, D Leamy (Munster) for Wallace, P Stringer (Munster) for Reddan (all 64 mins), R O'Gara (Munster) for Kearney (75 mins).

NEW ZEALAND: M Muliaina (Waikato); C Jane (Wellington), C Smith (Wellington), M Nonu (Wellington), H Gear (Wellington); D Carter (Canterbury), A Ellis (Canterbury); T Woodcock (North Harbour), H Elliot (Hawke's Bay), O Franks (Canterbury), A Boric (North Harbour), T Donnelly (Otago), J Kaino (Auckland), R McCaw (Canterbury, capt), K Read (Canterbury). Replacements: S Whitelock (Canterbury) for Donnelly (40 mins), A Hore (Taranaki) for Elliot, A Mathewson (Wellington) for Ellis, SB Williams (Canterbury) for Nonu (all 59 mins), J Afoa (Auckland) for Franks (66 mins). Not used: L Messam (Waikato), S Donald (Waikato).

Referee: Marius Jonker(South Africa).