This might be the All Blacks' greatest knockout win of all-time and that's the danger

The All Blacks 28-24 win over Ireland in the quarter-final was a pulsating, titanic battle between two contenders that came down to one inch as Jordie Barrett held up hooker Ronan Kelleher detaching from the Irish maul.

That one play with nine minute remaining is massively responsible for sending the world’s number one side out of the Rugby World Cup. It wasn’t the last play, which was Sam Whitelock’s steal after 37 phases of Irish attack, but it was the most important.

Decided by one inch, Barrett’s heroic tackle signifies the closeness of the battle and the fine margins that it came down to.

To suggest Ireland choked is an inaccurate assessment of what happened. They countered twice from 13-0 down and 18-10 to take the fight to the end. Going within one point multiple times.

If not for Barrett’s effort they would have taken the lead 29-28 with the kick to come and about six minutes to play.

Ireland did not choke and it doesn’t matter that they couldn’t shake the quarter-final exit tag either.

There is no moral victory in semi-final or final losses for either of these two sides, who were both genuine contenders for the Rugby World Cup. Success for both was win it all or go home with nothing.

Ireland had a side capable of winning it all and won’t. If the All Blacks lose either the semi or final, their campaign will be a failure as well.

This was a great contest between the powers of the game for a quarter-final for the ages.

When Leicester Fainga’anuku crossed for the first try after linking up with Rieko Ioane and Jordie Barrett, it symbolised just how far the All Blacks backline has come since the ill-fated Ireland series.

Fainga’anuku debuted in that series and after the second Test he was dropped completely. Without him on the field in the third Test everything was out of sorts.

In that series Rieko Ioane and Jordie Barrett, then playing fullback, had no ability to link and create space from static ball.

After Beauden Barrett had recovered a chip in behind Ireland’s line in the 18th minute, the All Blacks played their classic brand of free-form attack. Just play to the edge quickly, make quick decisions and attack the space.

Jordie Barrett held the outside space to free Fainganuku, who combined with Ioane from a 1-2 touch with a genius pass back inside to his winger to crash over and extend the lead to 13-0.

Just over twelve months ago these same combinations could not produce anything like that. Not for lack of talent or ability but for no shared understanding, trust or chemsitry.

Ioane continued to show his growth as a 13 with another deft assist for Ardie Savea to score in the corner just before half-time.

The Rieko Ioane move to the midfield has been one of Ian Foster’s biggest investments and calls of faith during his tenure. He has believed in Ioane all the way and stuck through the growing pains.

Ioane’s game improved out of sight down the stretch in 2022 after Joe Schmidt joined the coaching set-up and he repaid Foster’s faith with two try assists against statistically the best defence in world rugby in 2023.

Richie Mo’unga, who did not start during last year’s Ireland series, has been integral to rebuilding the All Blacks backline too. His best showings in a black jersey have come along with Schmidt’s arrival.

He ripped Ireland for a gut-punch of a play in the 52nd minute to blow open the game from a lineout. As he has so often done for the Crusaders, he ghosted through Dan Sheehan and Josh van der Flier with an inside show-and-go.

Blazing through the Irish backfield defence he manoeuvred perfectly to ensure that James Lowe couldn’t cover enough ground on Will Jordan, the perfect player to find in support to finish off the strike.

It was a game of big plays and the All Blacks made just enough to beat Ireland despite suffering two yellow cards.

Mack Hansen’s cross-field kick bounced too high for Dan Sheehan on the wing with an open line begging. Both sides had red zone visits erased by big breakdown penalties, Ardie Savea and Sam Cane combined to snub an Irish one out. Johnny Sexton missed a key penalty which cost Ireland dearly.

The biggest play of them all was Jordie Barrett’s miraculous tackle to hold up hooker Ronan Kelleher diving over the line after he detached from the maul.

The context of this win might be the greatest All Blacks’ World Cup knockout win of all-time. Outside of World Cup finals, it has a strong case.

They haven’t had to beat the world’s number one team before due to always holding that tag themselves. Given the recent history between these two rivals and the historic series loss at home, they were rightly priced as underdogs.

To defend for 37 phases without conceding a penalty in this day and age is a nearly implausible. But that’s what it took to deny a quality Irish side of progressing.

The biggest danger for the All Blacks is next. Plenty of teams have emptied the tank in underdog knockout victories only to have their euphoric state smashed to bits the next week.

In 2019 it was England, in 2007 it was France.

Although the All Blacks will be hot favourites to dispatch Argentina, do not forget that Los Pumas beat Foster’s side last year. Or that they handed them a first ever defeat in 2020.

The curse of this game is that it was a final before the final. When teams play their final before the final, we know what can happen. It is hard to get up again after investing so much emotion into it. Even more so the All Blacks had revenge in mind so the intensity of the preparation is heightened.

Most people die on Mt Everest on the way down, not climbing up. Aaron Smith crying his eyes out at full-time will be exactly what Argentina want to see.

David Kidwell’s defence has stuffed this All Blacks side twice before and a third time next week would be most untimely.

But for now this one can be added high on the list on the All Blacks’ World Cup legacy.