Unbelievable! It all ends in Irish tears

WHOEVER said that the All Black aura had waned, that it was now dust and powder? Whoever said it was going to be all-Northern Hemisphere semi-finals? New Zealand defied the emerald wall - both on the pitch and in a raucous Stade de France crowd to send Ireland packing from a World Cup quarter final for the eighth time.

- TOM BRADSHAW

They may have lost a series at home to Ireland and recently been defeated by France and South Africa, but the All Blacks' smart kicking game and devilish work at the breakdown saw them home in a nail-shredding, beautiful exhibition of rugby.

What a way for it all to end for Johnny Sexton, Ireland's beating heart and soul for so long. At 38 he is done. For a man who has woven so many fabulous epics for this Ireland side, the final page of his playing career finishes as a bitter tear-jerker after his side's 30-phase finale came to naught. Ireland can win Grand Slams.

They can chalk up series wins against the big beasts of the Southern Hemisphere. Yet a World Cup semi final - never mind a final continues to elude them.

Rugby is a place where pity can be hard to locate, but it is hard not to pity the likes of Conor Murray four world cups and still not a semi-final to show for it.

Paris had fast become as Irish as Guinness and James Joyce but it was the All Blacks rather than the black stuff that was, ultimately, the toast of the evening.