Foster praises 'brilliant' All Black defence

New Zealand narrowly beat Ireland 28-24 with an impressive defensive performance

New Zealand head coach Ian Foster praised his side's "brilliant" defence for holding out Ireland in the final stages of their thrilling World Cup quarter-final in Paris.

The All Blacks now face Argentina in the semi-final on Friday in Paris.

"I am so proud of the way we played. Our defence, particularly in that last part, was brilliant," said Foster.

"I thought we were really good. We were disciplined, we held our cool. I thought defensively we made some shifts and found a way of stopping their line breaks coming to us."

Six Nations champions Ireland topped Pool B after beating the likes of South Africa and Scotland and were on a 17-match winning run.

Andy Farrell's world number one side never led the game in Paris but came closest in the closing stages when replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher was held up over the line by Jordie Barrett.

This came before the final Irish onslaught in which New Zealand's defence held firm.

"We all knew it was going to be a monster game - we had been talking about it all week - and it was. It was a real arm wrestle," Foster added.

"They're a proud team, Ireland, they really hung in there. I thought we had them a couple of times but they kept making the game really tight."

Sam Cane put any doubts over his starting spot to bed with an excellent performance

New Zealand captain Sam Cane, who had only started one game at the competition prior to the match because of injury, topped the tackle stats for his side with 21.

His superb performance was underlined by a covering tackle on Hugo Keenan as the full-back broke through the All Black line.

"Our ability to defend our line for 30-plus phases at the end, that's huge," Cane said.

"What an atmosphere, what a game, what a tournament to be part of and I'm just really happy to have another week.

"A lot of credit has to go to Ireland. They have set the standard round world rugby for the last couple of years so we knew the challenge that we had here tonight."

Ian Foster's side are now aiming to become only the second side after South Africa in 2019 to win the World Cup after losing their opening game of the tournament.

Ardie Savea celebrates after scoring his side's second tryBrothers Jordie, Beauden and Scott Barrett all played key roles in the victoryScrum-half Aaron Smith shows his relief at the full-time whistleRugby World Cup fixtures, pools & BBC coverageSubscribe to the Rugby Union Daily podcast