New Zealand 66 - 28 Ireland: Kiwis crush 14-man Ireland

DAN CARTER became the first New Zealand player to surpass 1,000 Test points in a 66-28 thrashing of 14-man Ireland in New Plymouth.

Carter slotted 17 points from seven conversions and a penalty to move to 1,011 points as the All Blacks took advantage of Jamie Heaslip's sending off in the 16th minute for kneeing an All Black player in the head.

The game ended as a contest nine minutes later when Ronan O'Gara was sin-binned for a late tackle.

The home side scored three converted tries, two to Jimmy Cowan and one to prop Ben Franks, in the ten minutes Ireland were down to 13 men. This after they had galloped to a 17-0 lead courtesy of a Carter penalty and early tries for centre Conrad Smith and number eight Kieran Read.

Carter's conversion of Read's try took him past 1,000 Test points, joining an elite group comprising England's Jonny Wilkinson (1,175), Welshman Neil Jenkins (1,090) and Italy's Diego Dominguez (1,010).

Ireland's Dan Tuohy scored a try with his first touch, and O'Gara converted to make it 38-7 at half-time.

The All Blacks' continued in the same vein in the second half with Smith scoring his second try and Sam Whitelock scoring with his first touch.

Brian O'Driscoll, Tommy Bowe and Gordon D'Arcy all added tries for Ireland, and Neemia Tialata scored for the All Blacks before Whitelock scored his second try late in the game.