Cards the key to Irish horror show – Kidney

Ireland head coach Declan Kidney admitted that first half indiscipline against New Zealand cost his side dearly.

New Zealand posted their highest ever points total in a Test match against Ireland in a 66-28 victory, eclipsing their 63-point haul at Lansdowne Road in 1997.

Jamie Heaslip was sent off after just 15 minutes for indiscriminate use of the knee against the head of a New Zealand forward at a ruck.

Ronan O’Gara was sin-binned soon afterwards and New Zealand ran in three tries against the 13 men of Ireland to open up a 38-0 lead before half-time.

Afterwards, Kidney told Sky Sports: “That’s what the first half was – a horror show. We gave away soft tries, we missed tackles.

“We have to have a good hard look at it. When you’re faced with adversity that’s when you see the real character of some boys and they got a handle of it and did a little bit better.

“You could say the game was over after 15 or 20 minutes [following the red and yellow cards]. New Zealand scored 21 points in that ten minutes.”

Asked how he could pick his players up in time for next Friday’s meeting with the New Zealand Maoris in Rotorua, he said: “They picked themselves up at half-time. You saw that yourself in the second half.”