
It wasn't quite enough.
World player of the year Beauden Barrett put in a man of the match performance as Ireland succumbed to a 21-9 defeat to New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium.
It was a bruising encounter, with Robbie Henshaw, Johnny Sexton and Simon Zebo all forced off through injury as New Zealand's 'win at all costs' approach proved too much for Ireland to overcome.
Back-to-back victories were not to be, as Ireland's inability to score a try proved costly.
"If you're going to beat the All Blacks you're going to have to score more than nine points. From our point of view it's very disappointing," said Ireland captain Rory Best afterwards.
https://twitter.com/TaraSCunningham/status/800057393749049344
https://twitter.com/colmtobin/status/800057394386653186
https://twitter.com/cooper_m/status/800057658233458688
https://twitter.com/Evanis/status/800057623655682048
https://twitter.com/EoinMcDevitt/status/800057830334140417
And this one sums the whole thing up...
https://twitter.com/SecondCaptains/status/800058159842721792