New Zealand 22 Ireland 19: Irish and Sexton come up agonisingly short

The fly-half kicked 14 points and made the most yard gains for his side but fell short with a penalty attempt from the halfway line, which would have put Ireland three points clear.

His kick came up agonisingly short and it was left to Dan Carter, his opposite number, to slot over a drop goal in the final minute to win it for New Zealand and give them a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

“We’re pretty disappointed with the result,” said Sexton. “It is a tough one to take but we’ve got one more Test against them so we need to bounce back one more time. We saw a big improvement from the first to the second Test but I still think we made a lot of mistakes out there.

“We can improve again and we need to come back stronger next week.”

The tone was set in the early stages for an Irish display that would dwarf the showing at Eden Park in the first Test.

With nine minutes on the clock, referee Nigel Owens blew for a penalty following an All Black infringement against a driving maul.

Sexton had a quick discussion with his captain, Brian O’Driscoll, before opting to kick for an attacking line-out, rather than take the three points on offer. The decision was validated as scrum-half Conor Murray sniped over to score.

“We had a very good, driving maul beforehand,” he said. “Brian asked what I thought we should do so I said: ‘Put it in the corner’.

“We decided to go for it and it paid off, obviously, and put a bit of pressure on the All Blacks.”

The Irish led 10-9 at the break but they allowed New Zealand to edge to victory.

Ireland are without Jamie Heaslip (finger injury) and Gordon D’Arcy (calf strain) in Saturday’s final Test. D’Arcy has been replaced in the squad by Paddy Wallace.