When the All Blacks met Ireland in Dublin on Sunday, the hosts let their guests go hungry.
In a packed Aviva Stadium, Ireland earned a 29-20 win by dominating possession and territory - with more than a 60 per cent share of each - leaving the All Blacks to liveoff the scraps.
When they did get their hands on the ball, the All Blacks were often guilty of trying to force the play and errors crept into their performance. While they had opportunities to sting the hosts, the All Blacks saw opportunities go begging through execution and errors.
"It's really tough," All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor said of playing with so little of the ball.
"I suppose in previous games we've had this year, we've held onto the ball quite well and we probably didn't do that well tonight. They obviously wanted to hold onto the ball when they were in our half and take that away from us. It worked in their favour.
"There were some good things we got from when we did have it, but it'll be interesting to review it and see where we can be better when we do have the ball."
The All Blacks were on the back foot early as Ireland looked to stretch their defensive line and exploited the holes with some success. That pressure was compounded in the 14th minute when Taylor was sent to the sin bin for a rather soft infringement, in which he found himself in an awkward position and made contact with the head of an Irish player as he played at the ball.
"That's just what the rules say; any contact with the head," Taylor said of the card.
"I had no intention to go in and take his head off. I was just watching the ball and it bounced up in a way that went to him and you just react in those moments. I got stuck in a pretty sloppy position and they got the penalty for it. It's a tough one, but it's just the rules of the game and the way it's going."
Ireland beat the All Blacks 29-20 in Dublin. Photo / INPHO
Ireland opened the scoring soon after, but found themselves behind at the break due to a try through Taylor less than 10 minutes from halftime.
While both sides had their chances to go on with the job in the second half, it was the hosts who made the most of their possession and control of the ball to claim just their third win over the All Blacks – and their third in the last five matches between the two.
"That was just a test match; that's what test matches are. It was a hell of an arm wrestle," Taylor said.
"We were right there in that first half, I thought we dug really deep and defended really well to hold them out in period of that first half and in the second half we couldn't quite get some ascendancy with the ball, and when they had it, they put us under pressure.
"We came over here and got what we expected; we just weren't clinical in what we wanted to achieve."
