If you even compare the games from the two teams , Ireland and New Zealand, up to this game Ireland had a much tougher path than the All Blacks. That has to take a lot out of players no matter how fit thay are. Apart from the French game no team gave the All Blacks a game at all.
There is only a kick of a ball between Ireland, All Blacks, South Africa, France at the moment.
Also the All Blacks want revenge against France because of the opening game . They also want the No 1 title back.
I'd call that motivation..
If we had had too easy a group, I guarantee you the papers would be saying we lost because we hadn't been warmed up enough and NZ were stronger because they'd been battle hardened.
Were Ireland not motivated enough then to beat New Zealand, after how many times losing to them in World Cups including last time out?
Ireland weren't motivated enough to stay #1?
That's the implication of your point.
I don't pretend to be a rugby experts but these are some of the questions I see elsewhere on social media, and the analysis seems a lot more realistic than the stuff I read in the media on Sunday. For example, compare the player markings (lots of 5s) in the Sunday Independent with the description of the game and there's a massive disconnect.
Not enough rotation of players in group games so key players leggy now
Not enough game time in preparation for World Cup for upcoming players so they'd be ready when needed ... Sexton was dead on his feet for last 15 minutes and not replaced.
The first 20 minutes was nervy, uncharacteristic unforced errors
James Lowe (?) taking a mark and instead of waiting for Ireland team to be ready for the kick, booted it straight back to NZ which culminated in a try for NZ.
25% of the match played against 14 men and needed to take more advantage of that
Line outs a shambles
Sexton going for the corner instead of taking 3 points when Ireland were scoreless - lack of confidence in his kicking?
And then a general point which could apply to all European teams is the timing of the world cup and the European 6N and club seasons makes it harder for them to hit peak at World Cups. Ireland's focus was on winning 6N, going for grand slams, getting #1 ranking... when maybe it should have been about peaking for World Cup (if serious about winning it) and bringing through more players.