By Daragh Small
New Zealand 25 Ireland 3
Ireland ran out of steam in the second-half of their World Rugby U-20 Championships Pool C encounter with New Zealand and succumbed to a 25-3 defeat in Viadana.
The Kiwis progress to the semi-finals as group winners while Nigel Carolan's side will now face Wales on Saturday in the first of two games in the fifth-to-eighth-place play-offs.
Tevita Li ran in two tries for the Baby Blacks with Blake Gibson also crossing and out-half Otere Black kicking 10 points from the tee - Joey Carbery’s first-half penalty was Ireland’s sole response.
The four-time winners matched the 22-point hammering they dished out to the Irish in last year’s competition after leading 11-3 at the break.
But it could have been very different had the usually reliable Carbery been more accurate from the tee. The Auckland-born Ireland out-half had three kickable penalties inside the opening 16 minutes but only converted one of them, although two were from opposite wings.
Ireland were playing a smart territory game but the Kiwis always looked threatening with ball in hand and their first try came in the 19th minute.
Gibson broke off the back of a maul and fed the ball to Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi – he failed to cross the whitewash but got within inches and when the ball was spread wide Li was on hand to touch down in the corner.
It was tough on Ireland who had dominated the opening quarter but they kept attacking, Sam Arnold was to the fore and Jacob Stockdale kept them deep in New Zealand territory.
But once again the Baby Blacks worked their way up the field and Otere Black made up for his missed conversion by slotting his second kick on the half-hour.
It looked as though Ireland would be within a try going into half-time but Andrew Porter was pinged for interfering with scrum-half Tahuriorangi and Black gave Scott Robertson’s men an 11-3 half-time lead.
Head coach Robertson had made 12 changes for this game and the fresh legs told in the second-half.
It all went wrong for Ireland after the break, Li added his second just four minutes in when Josh Murphy missed his tackle.
Black kicked the conversion and minutes later he made it four from five on the night, this time Gibson got over after an Ireland scrum was driven off its own ball.
New Zealand: L Laulala; T Li, Jack Goodhue, N Apa, V Tavae-Aso; O Black, T Toiroa Tahuriorangi; I Tu’ungafasi, L Polwart, A Moli (capt); Joshua Goodhue, H Dalzell; J Blackwell, B Gibson, A Ioane.
Replacements: R Riccitelli for Polwart (52 mins), T Koloamatangi for Tu’ungafasi (52), M Hunt for Laulala (55), H Stowers for Ioane (59), A Ross for Moli (66), H Levien for Toiroa Tahuriorangi (66), M Dunshea for Joshua Goodhue (66),T Faiane for Jack Goodhue (69)
Ireland: B Dardis; J Owens, G Ringrose, S Arnold, J Stockdale; J Carbery, N McCarthy (capt); A Porter, S McNulty, O Heffernan; D O'Connor, A Thompson; J Murphy, R Moloney, L Dow.
Replacements: L O'Connor for Porter (10-18 mins), C Rock for McCarthy (35), T Quinlan for Dardis (50), C O’Donnell for Heffernan (52) C Romaine for Thompson (61), S McVeigh for Dow (61), L O'Connor for Porter (66), A McBurney for McNulty (66), F Cleary for Arnold (71)
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
