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Outstanding Ireland down New Zealand in Dublin

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Ireland ran in three tries as they outplayed the All Blacks on the way to a 29-20 victory at the Aviva Stadium.

Ireland ran in three tries as they outplayed the All Blacks on the way to a 29-20 victory at the Aviva Stadium.

In arguably the best performance of the Andy Farrell era, James Lowe, Caelan Doris and Ronan Kelleher all went over for the home side as they overcame a five-point half-time deficit to run out comfortable winners.

Lowe had given them a dream start when he crossed after 14 minutes, going over in the right corner after Codie Taylor had been sent to the sin-bin.

Jordie Barrett hit back with a penalty for New Zealand before Tadhg Furlong had a try disallowed for a double movement by Kelleher. And when Taylor went over minutes later, New Zealand went in front for the first time.

Ireland had chances at the end of the half, spending long periods on the All Black line but unable to break through.

However, after the break they were more clinical, drawing level when Kelleher went over from close range after the forwards had been hammering away.

Johnny Sexton missed the conversion to leave the scores level at 10-10 but Ireland soon hit the front.

Doris, player of the match for his efforts, grabbed his first Test try as he sliced straight through the New Zealand defensive line to sprint over from 30 metres out. Sexton converted and then added a penalty to make it 20-10.

Out of nowhere, the All Blacks hit back, Will Jordan chipping forward, Rieko Ioane collecting and then giving back to Jordan to go under the posts.

Still, Ireland were still on top and pushed the lead back to six points with a Joey Carbery penalty.

New Zealand thought they had the try that would give them a chance to retake the lead when Akira Ioane was put over by his brother Rieko, but the pass was forward. The All Blacks took the three points to make it 23-20 with ten minutes to go but that turned out to be their last score of the game.

Carbery stepped up and slotted a huge penalty from halfway to push the lead back to six after a turnover won by a Lowe tackle and Peter O’Mahony jackal. And they sealed victory with a final penalty from Carbery to seal a stunning success.