The scoreboard showed 23-12 in favour of Ireland — and the home side beaten at Forsyth Barr Stadium for the first time — on Saturday night.
Yet that win, which was Ireland’s first over the All Blacks in New Zealand, could have easily been by 20 or 30 points, had the visitors been more clinical.
For all its first-half dominance, Ireland managed just 10 points before the break.
All of those came before the chaotic period in which the All Blacks were reduced to 14, and sometimes 13, men from the 16th minute onwards.
The All Blacks held on bravely, camped on their own line.
But it was largely Ireland’s inability to make use of that numbers advantage that kept the home side in the game.
Soft penalties and handling errors prevented Ireland adding to its total before halftime.
But reeling in the Irish with 14 men, following a 31st-minute red card to Angus Ta’avao, proved too much, as the All Blacks barely fired a shot on attack.
"I think playing with 14 men is pretty tough, for a large period of that game," All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith said.
"We’re going to have to be a lot better. But there were a lot of things we could control, with our clean-outs, our ball carry and around our skill execution of forcing things, maybe, just a bit off.
"They didn’t really put us away. But they had that scoreboard pressure, that sort of 10-point buffer, that made us have to start playing a bit more."
The All Blacks defended stoutly, but they rarely looked like scoring. That can be a product of being a man down.
Even then, they created enough space, often using the width of the field to try to attack out wide.
It was often the basic skills — namely catching the ball — that let them down in those situations.
"Obviously our skill execution tonight was way off and really cost us," Smith said.
"It was a tough old first half. I think we fought hard to get back into it.
"But that first 20 minutes of the first half, we were pushing passes or missing little things. We just couldn’t get out of our half."
Ireland took just two minutes to unleash on the All Blacks, prop Andrew Porter crashing over to give it an early lead.
Johnny Sexton added a penalty on Ireland’s next foray into All Black territory; then mayhem.
Winger Leicester Fainga’anuku was the first to be yellow-carded, before Ofa Tu’ungafasi followed not long after.
His front row replacement — Dalton Papalii had gone to the sideline — Ta’avao followed with a red in the 31st minute.
He clashed heads with Ringrose, who will miss this weekend’s decider, in what looked largely an accidental contact.
But referee Jaco Peyper decided he had no choice but to red-card the replacement.
Ardie Savea went off to allow a further front row replacement, but as it was a red card, it left him sidelined for the rest of the game.
Barrett scored a somewhat lucky try — the ball having deflected off his boot, which allowed him to dive on it — after a sustained period of pressure on halftime to make it 10-7.
But it was all the All Blacks could muster until Will Jordon’s late consolation try.
Porter scored again early in the second half, as Ireland held possession and kept the All Blacks out of the game.
Sexton’s boot allowed it to build the score to 23-7, leaving the game out of reach.
All Blacks v Ireland
The scores
Ireland 23
Andrew Porter 2 tries; Johnny Sexton 2 con, 3 pen
All Blacks 12
Beauden Barrett, Will Jordan tries; Jordie Barrett con
Halftime: Ireland 10-7.
Crowd: 28,191.
