The Albany Gazette - Defence puts a smile on All Blacks faces ahead of French Test

The All Blacks outthought and outfought an uncharacteristically sloppy Irish side to bring the hosts 19-match winning home streak to an end.

AFP Sport picks out three things which puts a pep in the step of New Zealand ahead of their first match at the Stade de France since losing 12-11 to South Africa in last year's World Cup final:

Defence is razor-sharp

The All Blacks victory was built, like their epic 28-24 triumph over the Irish in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final last year, on a rock solid defence.

The hosts Josh van der Flier scored a try early in the second-half but rather than sparking an Irish deluge they rarely got a sniff of another chance as the All Blacks extinguished their attacks.

This display had head coach Scott Robertson purring.

"We produced some really incredible defensive plays when we did get the opportunity," he said.

"We made some tackles and their discipline went and we managed to get inside their half and put a little bit of pressure and that led to some points so we could play from the front."

For Robertson, who took over after the World Cup final, it has been an up and down first year losing three of their Rugby Championship Tests, including one to Argentina.

However, the 50-year-old, nicknamed 'Razor', said the difference on Friday was the scrum showed they had learned from errors in those losses.

"Yeah, look, as I've said before, every game we could have won this year," he said.

"We got a couple of scrum penalties that swung the momentum back our way, which sometimes have gone the other way."

Scrum-half dilemma

Robertson's main selection conundrum for the France Test may well be at scrum-half.

There is as yet no clear number one since the great Aaron Smith retired after the World Cup final loss to the Springboks.

The starter against Ireland Cortez Ratima had a torrid time especially at the breakdowns, outshone by the hosts Jamison Gibson-Park, and was hooked early in the second-half.

His replacement Cam Roigard, who has returned from a serious knee injury, looked more assured.

However, All Blacks skipper Scott Barrett shouldered some of the blame for Ratima's problems at the breakdown.

"At times our body height was a little bit high and they were able to disrupt and we gave Cortez some messy balls, so yeah, I guess it's on us," he said.

"That's probably the first thing to address next week."

Robertson for his part praised both saying Ratima was "learning really quickly" and his fellow 23-year-old Roigard has all the "attributes" for Test rugby and is "really classy."

"We've got some great competition at half-backs," he said.

Barrett leads from the front

There's nothing a team likes more than to see their captain stepping up when he sees something not to his liking on the pitch.

The bad blood between the teams -- harking back to a fruity exchange between now retired Irish icon Johnny Sexton and All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane as the final whistle blew on their quarter-final -- came to a head early in the first-half.

Barrett fronted up to Irish lock Joe McCarthy.

"I don't usually take exception, but I saw something that was below the line for me," he said.

"I think I was getting up from a ruck and from where I saw it, it looked like Damian (McKenzie) was on the ground and I think Joe cleaned him up.

"From where I saw it, it looked like it was around his head, it looked like a bit of a shoulder.

"I had to make a point of, it's not tonight, you're targeting our 10 like that."

(D.Lewis--TAG)