Porter Brace Powers Ireland To Historic Victory In Dunedin

Ireland made history with their first ever win over the All Blacks on New Zealand soil, bringing the Test series level with a 23-12 victory that reverberated around Forsyth Barr Stadium and far beyond.

In Pics: New Zealand 12 Ireland 23

Taking advantage of the hosts’ indiscipline, Andrew Porter piled over for a try in each half and captain Jonathan Sexton’s composed kicking delivered the other 13 points.

Andy Farrell’s men repeated their strong start from the first Test but were able to sustain the pressure on this occasion, with New Zealand struggling on the back of two yellow cards and a red.

Leicester Fainga’anuku and Ofa Tu’ungafasi were sin-binned within eight minutes of each other, before replacement prop Angus Ta’avao’s head-on-head tackle on Garry Ringrose saw him sent off on the half hour mark.

Ringrose played no further part, and despite also losing Ardie Savea due to prop requirements, the hosts closed the gap to 10-7 with a Beauden Barrett try right on half-time.

Crucially, Porter was able to wrestle his way over within seven minutes of the restart as Ireland, with terrific performances up front from Peter O’Mahony, Caelan Doris and Tadhg Beirne, seized control again.

With James Ryan returning from a spell in the bin, the tourists maintained the momentum with replacement Bundee Aki adding his physicality around the field and the scrum forcing penalties.

Sexton splits the posts with well-struck efforts in the 55th and 67th minutes, the bench providing energy and impact as New Zealand were held up repeatedly and given a taste of their own medicine from the Auckland opener.

Replacement Will Jordan grabbed a late consolation try in the corner, but it failed to take the shine off a famous night for Irish rugby as the travelling support’s singing threatened to lift the roof off Dunedin’s ‘Glasshouse’.

This was Ireland’s first away win over New Zealand in 14 attempts stretching back to 1976. It makes it four victories in their last seven meetings, backing up those rip-roaring results in Chicago (2016) and Dublin (2018 and 2021).

Most importantly, it gives Farrell’s charges a shot at winning the series at Sky Stadium next Saturday. Before that, Ireland will face the Māori All Blacks at the same Wellington venue on Tuesday.

Giving his reaction afterwards, head coach Farrell said: “It’s a privilege to be here and witness what we just witnessed with the boys going toe-to-toe and being so courageous from minute one.

“We know that the All Blacks traditionally come out better in game two, especially here under the roof and we were as courageous as we were last week.

“We came out of the blocks quick and put them under some pressure and score some tries. The game wasn’t perfect but we were calm, we didn’t get sucked into the allure of the game.

“Them going down to 14 or 13 men, we kept playing the game that was in front of us. Again, it wasn’t perfect, we gave a few penalties away and gave them access but we stayed calm and stayed in the fight. We were the ones who played for 80 minutes this week.”

He added: “They (the players) come over here and know that there is a piece of history for them in their careers. We talk about it to them, ‘somebody’s going to do it sometime soon and it might as well be you’.

“They keep turning up and breaking their little records and I’m so proud of them. They’ve earned the right for next week to go into a decider.

“More importantly, we are over here on this tour putting people under pressure with a big squad and a big turnaround and two games against the Māori to give people a chance to try and grow the squad for next year.

“Tuesday night for us against the Māori is just as important for us as this one.”