SUNDAY SPECIAL: The drums start beating…

The Irish needed no luck - they were simply miles better.

James lands a Lowe blow on his former countrymen. Photo / Getty Images

No beating around the Bushmills here: Ireland outplayed, out-muscled, out-thought and, by the length of Lansdowne Road, out-coached the All Blacks.

The score was 29-20 and that didn’t flatter the hosts at all, to be sure.

There’s always a danger when you hover over the keys after a match played on high emotion that some of it seeps into your thinking but even the most bloodless analysis cannot avoid the conclusion that Ian Foster and his support staff will be under massive pressure this week.

Even then, a win against France will act as a salve, not an antiseptic. 

The All Blacks are now two years into the post-Shag era and the elements of the game that were creaking under Steve Hansen are collapsing under Foster.

The over-reliance on transition attack has left them bereft of creativity and impact from set-piece and phase play, something not helped by an inability to settle on - or lack of confidence in? - a midfield combination, and an insistence on starting every match by playing right on the advantage line.