Ireland v New Zealand live: All Blacks earn Chicago redemption with scrappy win

Tadhg Beirne was shown a contentious early red card as Ireland’s quest to create more special memories in Chicago ended in an emphatic 26-13 loss to New Zealand.

Almost nine years to the day since Ireland’s milestone first victory in the fixture, the All Blacks gained revenge at Soldier Field thanks to tries from Ardie Savea, Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Cam Roigard.

Ireland initially overcame the controversial third-minute dismissal of Beirne for a high tackle on Beauden Barrett, who landed three conversions, to lead through a Tadhg Furlong score and eight points from Jack Crowley.

Oh, if you like made-up trophies in sport then you’ll like this - New Zealand, of course, won the Gallagher Cup due to their victory today.

What is the Gallagher Cup, I hear you ask?... Yup...

Anyway, they’ll have to move aside some of their Webb Ellis cups to make room for this one in the trophy cabinet.

Meanwhile, New Zealand can build on this opening win as they too head to Europe after their Stateside adventure.

Scotland, fresh off an 85-0 shellacking of the USA today, are the next challenge for the All Blacks before a mouth-watering clash with England and then a trip to Cardiff to face Wales to finish. Can they go four from four?

New Zealand’s autumn campaign

Today: Ireland 13-26 New Zealand

November 8: Scotland vs New Zealand

November 15: England vs New Zealand

November 22: Wales vs New Zealand

A frustrating start for Andy Farrell’s men but they now head back to Ireland to lick their wounds.

A clash with Japan in Dublin next weekend should be a get-right game before two more big ones against Australia, then South Africa, to round out their November schedule.

Those final two matches will be fascinating.

Ireland’s autumn campaign

Today: Ireland 13-26 New Zealand

November 8: Ireland vs Japan

November 15: Ireland vs Australia

November 22: Ireland vs South Africa

By contrast, Ireland were frustrated after slipping to defeat. Skipper for the day Dan Sheehan couldn’t hide his disappointment at the result.

“It is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Sheehan. “To be honest I never thought we really got going.

“We were operating at about 80 per cent going into half-time but there was a lot of inaccuracy and ill-discipline in the second half. Our training the last two weeks has been physical and good.

“Hopefully we can get better for Japan next week. We have three big games back at the Aviva now. We need to focus on our set-piece and breakdown, where we massively struggled today.”

All Blacks lock Fabian Holland impressed today and earned man-of-the-match honours. Here’s what he had to say about the win.

“It was a massive game for us,” said Holland. “Thank you to everyone for coming out, it means the world to us.

“Credit to Ireland, they are a great side. We’re stoked to get the win. We wanted to make a statement at the start of this tour and hopefully we did that.

“We had to adjust with Scott and Jordie Barrett going off in the first half and the boys did so beautifully. We wanted to keep playing All Black rugby in the second half and back each other up.”

Here’s the best of the action from Ireland’s victory at Soldier Field.

The All Blacks had too much for Ireland in the end and it’s a frustrating start to the autumn for Andy Farrell’s men

And it’s all over in Chicago. Retribution for that day in 2016 as New Zealand put up a strong second-half performance to down Ireland.

Not the return that Andy Farrell wanted from Lions duty as they saw a 10-0 lead slip away and the All Blacks get the job done

Roigard comes off immediately after that try as Cortez Ratima is on as the final All Black sub. They can jsut see this game out now.