New Zealand 46-14 Ireland: All Blacks set up England World Cup semi-final with dominant display in Tokyo

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George Flood19 October 2019

New Zealand now stand between England and a place in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Final after the All Blacks produced a dominant display to brush aside Ireland in Saturday's second last-eight tie.

Steve Hansen's No1-ranked side ran in seven tries in a decidedly one-sided quarter-final affair at Tokyo Stadium - further underlining their status as overwhelming favourites to lift the Webb Ellis trophy for the third tournament in succession.

Ireland, meanwhile, were comfortably second-best throughout and looked unlikely to trouble the scoreboard before a late effort from Robbie Henshaw and subsequent penalty try.

It was an extremely disappointing way to end the six-year Ireland tenure of departing coach Joe Schmidt and the overall rugby career of captain Rory Best, who received an emotional ovation as he played in his final match before retirement.

AFP via Getty Images

Ireland had won two of their last three matches against New Zealand after ending their 111-year run without a win in the fixture at the 29th attempt in 2016, yet they fell behind early to a Richie Mo'unga penalty after a failed attempted intercept from Jacob Stockdale.

The All Blacks quickly applied serious pressure inside the Irish 22, which paid off when Aaron Smith spotted a gap created by a strong Kieran Read carry and darted over to score the first try of the night.

The experienced scrum-half doubled his tally just six minutes later, bundling over from close range after a tidy inside step from George Bridge and good work from Jack Goodhue and Sevu Reece.

New Zealand's stunning accuracy and precision was met with a string of sloppy Ireland errors and Beauden Barrett - operating at full-back once more - appeared to put the game away eight minutes before the break when a jarring hit from Reece on Johnny Sexton knocked the ball loose.

It was hacked forward by Mo'unga and controlled wonderfully on the dribble by Barrett, who scooped it up to score a try that was subject to a TMO check.

Ireland had to wait until the clock was in the red at the end of the first half to make their first foray into the New Zealand 22 and they came away with no points after Peter O'Mahony was punished for leading with his shoulder at the breakdown.

New Zealand led 22-0 at the interval and wasted little time in extended that big lead as phase after phase of attack and error-free ball retention led to captain Read popping a pass off the floor to be finished by hooker Codie Taylor.

AP

Try No5 came courtesy of lock Matt Todd, who was sent over by fellow replacement TJ Perenara after a ruthless driving lineout maul.

There were huge cheers for Best from an Irish-heavy crowd as he was replaced with 16 minutes remaining and Ireland finally got off the mark shortly afterwards.

Centre Henshaw quickly atoned for a dreadful error that had cost his team a try a few moments earlier as he dotted down under the posts after No8 CJ Stander had taken the ball from the base of the scrum.

New Zealand, no doubt frustrated after missing out on a potential clean sheet, hit straight back when Ardie Savea secured the turnover and Dane Coles played in Bridge to finish.

There was a busy end to proceedings in store as Ireland were awarded a penalty try and Todd was shown a yellow card after coming from an offside position to block Stander as he looked to touch the ball against the base of the post.

PA

The last flourish from New Zealand came after the gong as Mo'unga punished some woeful Stockdale defending and fired a perfect high pass to Beauden Barrett, who duly set up younger brother Jordie to complete the rout.

The All Blacks now move on to face England in next Saturday's first semi-final at International Stadium Yokohama.

For Ireland, a comprehensive defeat represents the end of an era as the popular Schmidt hands the reins over to defence coach Andy Farrell.

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