Worst test match ever?

It's hard to know what to say about the Ireland v New Zealand match. For most of the match it was error-strewn. There were times that the referee made some odd decisions - in particularly to deny Sivivatu a try - but mostly it was the players conspiring to not play well, the players on both sides.

In fairness most of the All Blacks only made one or two mistakes, but, most unusually, they all did, or almost all of them. The Irish were more error-prone, and largely because of that couldn't really mount serious pressure on the All Black try line - even when they got down there they didn't really threaten because they knocked-on, gave up penalties or gave up the ball.

The All Blacks only played well for about 15 minutes, but it was 15 minutes that gave them a penalty try and two more conventional tries. It also gave them a stupid piece of commentary about the penalty try. Would a try probably have been scored? Yes. Not certainly, but probably. Did a penalty offence prevent this? Yes. Is a penalty try therefore the right result? Yes, absolutely. The yellow card to go with it seemed harsh, but then for something between a punch and shove Lawrence was interested in whether a yellow card was harsh enough, so the yellow card wasn't that bad in that context.

The All Blacks deserved to win. They made fewer mistakes, they dominated the set piece, they kicked better, they received the kicks more accurately and with more intent. But OMG this was a bad, bad game.

If the All Blacks play this badly they're in risk of losing to Wales to next week. It sounds unlikely but good to say that.