Ireland And Scotland Both Lose

Ireland's hopes of claiming a historic first ever win over the All Blacks were dashed as the visitors won easily at despite not being at the best.

The home team had several lucky escapes before Dan Carter kicked the opening penalty at Croke Park although Ronan O'Gara levelled on 38 minutes.

New Zealand notched a penalty try in first-half injury time when Tommy Bowe deliberately palmed into touch.

Ma'a Nonu and Brad Thorn added tries as New Zealand took complete control.

Ireland had a scare in the opening minute when Jimmy Cowan charged down Ronan O'Gara's attempted clearance but Rob Kearney got back to avert the danger.

The Irish had another let off in the fourth minute when Dan Carter missed a straightforward penalty and the home side claimed a vital turnover two minutes later after Mils Muliaina had stormed through midfield.

New Zealand were coming at the home side in waves and Luke Fitzgerald made a vital tackle as Muliaina charged towards the line in the eighth minute.

Despite the All Blacks pressure, the Irish somehow reached the 20th minute without conceding any points as the home side finally began to make forays into opposition territory.

David Wallace's break cheered the home fans - with Tommy Bowe failing to hold the pass - after the Munster flanker had beaten three attempted tackles.

Carter missed a glorious chance to put New Zealand ahead on 24 minutes from straight in front of the posts but the fly-half finally did open the scoring two minutes later, from a similar position.

The fly-half's opposite number Ronan O'Gara was having a nervous opening half with a couple of errant kicks while the Irish line-out was also under pressure.

O'Gara regrouped admirably two minutes before the break to land an equalising penalty after Alan Quinlan had been fortunate to not see the award reversed when he raked his studs on Rodney So'oialo's back.

But the Irish suffered a massive blow in first-half injury time when referee Mark Lawrence awarded the All Blacks a penalty try, which led to Tommy Bowe being sin-binned.

The Ospreys winger raced to intercept a dangerous chip with McCaw also charging in and, according to the referee, palming the ball out of touch illegally inches short of the try line.

It was a huge call but on balance, looked the correct one.

New Zealand lost their man advantage two minutes into the second half when prop Tony Woodcock was yellow carded for a punch on Rory Best.

However, the All Blacks were turning the screw and Ali Williams charged over the Irish line after some sloppy home tackling on 45 minutes only to be held up by some desperate tackling.

Within five minutes the game was over after Ma'a Nonu and Brad Thorn had run in two tries, as gaping holes started to show up in the Irish defence.

Nonu's own superb flat pass to the charging Joe Rokocoko set up the 47th-minute try with the centre taking the return before touching down.

Carter added the extras to put New Zealand 17-3 ahead and more agony was piled on with Thorn's 53rd-minute score after a looping Sitiveni Sivivatu pass, with lone final defender Tommy Bowe left hopelessly outnumbered.

Ireland had numbers out wide in the 57th minute but Marcus Horan delivered the pass hopelessly into touch, which summed up the misfiring home team.

New Zealand squandered further chances in the closing minutes and the sad reality for Ireland was that the All Blacks had not played anything like their best.

By the end, the 75,000 crowd, and maybe the home players as well, were wondering how they had convinced themselves during the week that Ireland's barren run might be about to end.

Scotland came close to beating the world champions but were made to pay for missed penalties in a hard-fought encounter at Murrayfield.

Nathan Hines scored the Scots' first home try in 14 months just before the break, adding to Phil Godman's earlier penalty after two Dan Parks misses.

The Springboks hit back with a sweeping move finished off by Jaque Fourie.

Ruan Pienaar added nine points with the boot, but Scotland spurned a scoring opportunity in the final two minutes.

Camped deep inside South Africa's 22m, the Scots continued to recycle the ball, but the visitors' resolute defence held firm against the onslaught.

Godman had just spurned a glorious opportunity to cut the deficit to one point - his second penalty miss of the game - as Scotland pushed for the all-important score.

The defeat means Scotland, ranked ninth, cannot now climb back into the top eight of the International Rugby Board's world rankings before the 2011 World Cup draw is made on 1 December, meaning they will be in a group with two top-eight teams.

But despite the result, Scotland coach Frank Hadden can take heart from the way his side matched the Springboks for long periods.