Ireland face All Blacks test of attacking ambition vs defensive pragmatism

On a November afternoon in Dublin, Ireland stood at a crossroads familiar to any team that has glimpsed a better version of itself: having played with rare attacking freedom against Japan, they now faced the question of whether that identity could survive contact with the world's most formidable rugby nation. The All Blacks, winners of 12 of 13 tests in 2021 and holders of staggering scoring records, arrived at the Aviva Stadium as both a measuring stick and a mirror — one that would reveal whether Ireland's new ambition was a philosophy or merely a performance. In sport as in life, the truest