New Zealand 66 - 28 Ireland: Heaslip ban leaves Irish in poor shape for rest of tour

The Irish No 8 will miss the remainder of his side's Australasian tour following a moment of madness which saw him sent off by referee Wayne Barnes for striking New Zealand captain Richie McCaw twice with his knee at Yarrow Stadium on Saturday.

His premature departure left Ireland facing a mammoth battle and, with Ronan O'Gara also sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes for cynical play, the Irish found themselves 38-7 down at half-time and on the wrong side of a 66-28 final scoreline. Heaslip admitted his guilt to an IRB judicial hearing yesterday, but denied connecting with McCaw's head in the 15th-minute incident.

IRB judicial officer Michael Cashman determined that his first strike was to the head and ruled his actions were in the mid-range of striking offences.

Team manager Paul McNaughton said the Leinster man had received a fair hearing and the matter had now been laid to rest. "It's not going to affect his international future," he said. "He needs to move on and so do we."

The sending-off, sin-binning and a defence that leaked five tries in a high-tempo opening 40 minutes meant there was little to cheer about in the Irish dressing room at half-time.

"It wasn't pleasant at all," admitted winger Andrew Trimble. "We knew we were getting an absolute hiding and we had to roll up our sleeves. We salvaged some sort of pride with four tries."

Ireland have less than a week to turn things around before they take on New Zealand Maori, who earned a tough 37-31 win over the New Zealand Barbarians at the weekend.

Ireland departed for Rotorua yesterday minus another loose forward after John Muldoon was ruled out of the remaining matches against the Maori and Australia. The blindside flanker suffered a broken arm in the first half of Saturday's match and will undergo surgery before heading home.

Under-20 captain Rhys Ruddock, who has been playing in the Junior World Championship in Argentina, has been called in as a replacement.

"Rhys has performed very well for the U20s and with Leinster when he has had the chance to play this season, so this will be a good chance for him to gain experience and we have every confidence in him," said Ireland coach Declan Kidney.

New Zealand: Tries: Smith 2, Read, B. Franks, Cowan 2, Whitelock 2, Tialata. Cons: Carter 7, Weepu 2. Pen: Carter.

Ireland: Tries: Tuohy, B. O'Driscoll, Bowe, D'Arcy. Cons: O'Gara 3, Sexton.

New Zealand: Dagg; Jane, Smith, Stanley, Rokocoko; Carter, Cowan; Ben Franks, Mealamu, Owen Franks, Thorn, Boric, Kaino, McCaw, Read. Substitutes: Guildford for Jane (63), Cruden for Carter (54), Weepu for Cowan (41), Tialata for B. Franks (52), de Malmanche for Mealamu (63), Whitelock for Thorn (50), Vito for Kaino (38).

Ireland: Kearney; Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, D'Arcy, Trimble; O'Gara, O'Leary; Healy, Cronin, Buckley, O'Callaghan, Mick O'Driscoll, Muldoon, David Wallace, Heaslip. Substitutes: G Murphy for Kearney (70), Sexton for O'Gara (70), Reddan for O'Leary (70), Court for Healy (77), Fogarty for Cronin (77), Tuohy for M. O'Driscoll (35), Jennings for Muldoon (32). Sin Bin: O'Gara (25). Sent Off: Heaslip (16).