Ian Foster has described Ireland's performance in Saturday's Autumn Nations Series match as the best he has faced as New Zealand head coach and said he had few complaints about his side's 29-20 defeat.
The All Blacks were unable to match Andy Farrell's Irish side in a pulsating Aviva Stadium encounter and Foster admitted that the eventual victors deserved the win.
"Congratulations to Ireland, they thoroughly deserved their win," he said.
"I was really impressed with them today, they played a high-tempo game, kept us chasing.
"When it really mattered at the end, we just didn't quite have the composure to take the opportunity that we had presented to us.
"That was a very, very good performance and probably the best performance I've come up against in my time. I thought they were pretty polished."
The below-par All Blacks threatened to snatch victory but, trailing 23-17 with 11 minutes to go, Akira Ioane's try was disallowed for a forward pass to the frustration of Foster.
"I thought Akiri's was a great try but the TMO didn't and that's probably the story of the game," he said.
