New Zealand coach Ian Foster lamented his side's "unacceptable" errors in their 23-12 defeat to Ireland in Dunedin, acknowledging that it was "hard trying to play catch up" after the first-half red card to Angus Ta'avao.
In a chaotic test match, in which the hosts incurred one red card and two yellows in the first 40 minutes, tries either side of half-time by Andrew Porter set Ireland on their way to a historic victory, Will Jordan's late score coming far too late to rescue NZ.
Foster has now presided over two defeats from three encounters against Ireland and a first ever on home soil in the fixture.
"We've had a couple of starts [that] are substandard, which we're going to have to improve on," Foster told Stuff.co.nz afterwards.
"I love the attitude of the team through that rather chaotic quarter where things were happening and with the cards.
"That try at the start of the second half hurt us. It's hard trying to play catch up with 14 men against a really well organised defensive team.
"But you know there was probably an unacceptable amount of errors in terms of the handling stuff."
The All Blacks coach passed up the chance to complain about the first-half red card meted out to prop Angus Ta'avao and the yellow cards shown to Ofa Tuungafasi and Leicester Fainga'anuku.
Ta'avao was sent off after stepping into Garry Ringrose on the half hour, the collision seeing NZ reduced to 14 and the Irish centre departing for a HIA, ultimately replaced by Bundee Aki.
Earlier, Tu'ungafasi had been sin-binned for an off-the-ball tackle on Ringrose as Sexton countered up the left wing - possibly stopping a pass inside and a likely try. Fainga'anuku, meanwhile, was previously yellow carded for a late hit on Mack Hansen.
"It is what it is," Foster said. "I think no one saw it as intentional but there was certainly head on head contact. Then the two yellow cards previously...I guess that the officials are reasonably clear on them...we're not grizzling about the cards."
That try at the start of the second half hurt us. It's hard trying to play catch up with 14 men against a really well organised defensive team
However, Foster did have the occasional gripe about the officials, citing an incident where Ireland should have been penalised prior to Porter's opening try.
"It's hard to catch up (when a man down) but we've just got to be better than that," he said.
"You get test matches where things happen and we don't get the rub of the green. The first lineout, the TMO was telling the ref that Ireland should be penalised - he didn't hear him and they went down to the other end and scored.
"But we were our own worst enemy in that second half. We've got to be better. We can still win with 14.
"We've just got to trust ourselves and trust what we do, and ultimately back your own skill level.
"That's something we’ve got to go away and work hard on."
