Retiring captain Rory Best paid an emotional tribute to Ireland rugby after a clinical performance from New Zealand ended their World Cup dream in Tokyo.
Aaron Smith scored two of the All Blacks’ seven tries in a comprehensive 46-14 quarter-final victory to set up a semi-final showdown against England.
Defeat against the back-to-back champions signalled the end of Best’s international career, while head coach Kiwi Joe Schmidt will be leaving his role.
Best, 37, struggled to hold back tears in his post-match pitchside interview. “I would just like to thank this unbelievable Irish crowd. It started off with an incredible atmosphere and they were brilliant,” he said.
“But the All Blacks were fantastic tonight. We felt we prepared well all week, we felt we had a game plan, we felt we had enough in our armoury to beat them.
“They just started off out of the blocks hard at us, put us on the back foot and, like good sides do, they never let us get off that again.”
Coach Joe Schmidt felt his side gave New Zealand too many “access points” into the game.
“We turned the ball over, but we missed opportunities to get into their zone and really put some pressure on,” he said.
“We kind of gave them a leg up and, when they get a points differential like they had, you are chasing the game.
“When you chase the game, you take risks that, if you are not executing perfectly, they’re going to capitalise on the back of it.”
All Blacks forward Brodie Retallik felt his side produced an “awesome spectacle” as he turned his attention towards the clash with England.
“We have only seen bits and bobs (of England), and I saw a bit of the Australia game, but they are playing with great skill,” he said.
“They have great outside backs with a good forward pack, but we will knuckle down to playing them this week.”