Rory McIlroy consoled himself with the thought of watching another possible Ireland victory over the All Blacks after seeing his title defence suffer a costly late blow in Dubai.
McIlroy has won the DP World Tour Championship twice before and never finished worse than 11th in seven appearances at Jumeirah Golf Estates, but found himself outside the top 20 after a third round of 68.
The world number two, whose opening 75 was his first over-par score in the lucrative season-ending event, was left to rue a number of missed opportunities before a bogey on the last after hitting his approach into the creek which runs the length of the hole.
"I think I turned a 62 into a 68 somehow," McIlroy said.
"I hit a lot of good shots and didn't really hole many putts and it was the story of the day with what happened on 18.
"(I hit) a great drive, second shot had 207 (yards) to the pin into the wind. Maybe just was a little too aggressive with it and pulled it slightly and just got punished for a bad shot.
"It's okay," McIlroy said. "I've got a great afternoon of sport coming up, so I'm going to go home and sit myself on the couch and watch a couple of football matches and a rugby match and all will be well.
"I want to go out and play well tomorrow, try and post a good score and feel good about myself going into the next couple of months before I tee it up again."
"I've got a great afternoon of sport coming up, so I'm going to go home and sit myself on the couch and watch a couple of football matches and a rugby match and all will be well."
At five under par, McIlroy was eight shots behind clubhouse leader Victor Dubuisson of France, who shot an impressive 64, while Henrik Stenson strengthened his grip on the European Order of Merit title after a string of birdies on the back nine of his third round.
Having continued his struggles of the first two days into day three with bogeys on holes four, six and 10, Stenson finally clicked into gear in the afternoon sunshine in Dubai as he holed five birdies in the last seven holes - including chipping straight in from the greenside rough on 16.
"I turned it around at least and, yeah, I've got to be pretty pleased with the way we managed to play on the way home," Stenson told reporters.
His two-under par round of 70 moved him to five under for the tournament, level with McIlroy.
Behind Dubuisson, English youngster Matthew Fitzpatrick's six-under par 66, which included a monster eagle putt on hole seven as well as seven birdies, left him 12 under alongside fellow Englishman Tyrrell Hatton and Nicolas Colsaerts.
Offaly’s Shane Lowry carded a 69 and is six under par for the tournament.
