Johnny Sexton urges Ireland to continue improving after win over New Zealand

Ireland captain Johnny Sexton has urged his side to improve further following their 29-20 win over New Zealand at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

James Lowe, Ronan Kelleher and Caelan Doris scored tries for Ireland while Sexton kicked five points as Ireland had a 23-20 lead in the first 70 minutes before Joey Carbery kicked two penalties to seal a thrilling nine point victory.

This was also Ireland's third win over the All Blacks in the last five games and a second consecutive win over them at Aviva Stadium.

“We’ve already identified that this is the start of a two-year journey and we’ve said that,” said the fly-half.

“This is the start and it’s important that we continually improve.

“Obviously, this being a peak is no good to anybody. There’s lot of room for improvement – we need to keep our feet on the ground and keep driving this.

“There’s a lot of young guys, very young, a lot younger than me, and they need to realise that this is still a start and we need to keep building.

“The great thing about beating New Zealand is that it gives a lift to the country but you don’t win a trophy and you don’t have something to show for it, as such.

“As happy as we are, we need to push on.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand head coach Ian Foster praised Ireland for their display in Dublin.

“Congratulations to Ireland, they thoroughly deserved their win,” he said.

“I was really impressed with them today, they played a high-tempo game, kept us chasing.

“When it really mattered at the end, we just didn’t quite have the composure to take the opportunity that we had presented to us.

“That was a very, very good performance and probably the best performance I’ve come up against in my time. I thought they were pretty polished.”