Ireland's homecoming to the redeveloped Lansdowne Road stadium ended in frustration as they slumped to a fourth successive Test defeat when their late fightback fell just short against South Africa yesterday.
Trailing 23-9 with 15 minutes to go, the appearance of Ronan O'Gara from the bench coincided with a scoring spree that almost reeled in the Springboks.
O'Gara, who was winning his 100th cap, teed up a try for Tommy Bowe with a crossfield kick and then supplied the scoring pass for Rob Kearney's touchdown.
Presented with a touchline conversion to level the match, the fly-half struck the crossbar and Ireland failed to trouble the scoreboard again in the remaining five minutes.
Elsewhere, Richie McCaw, the New Zealand captain, revealed the motivation of last week's shock defeat to Australia was the inspiration behind their win over England at Twickenham yesterday
After the 26-24 Bledisloe Cup defeat in Hong Kong last week, the All Blacks withstood a spirited second-half revival to beat England 26-16 in the opening match of their European tour.
Hosea Gear and Kieran Read touched down in the first 21 minutes as the rampant All Blacks threatened to overwhelm the home side, but New Zealand-born hooker Dylan Hartley reduced the deficit after half time.
England centre Shontayne Hape, a New Zealand rugby league international before switching codes and allegiance, thought he had dragged England to within a single score with a second-half try in the corner but it was disallowed on video replay.
Down to 14 men for a yellow card to Jerome Kaino, the southern hemisphere champions held on for a ninth straight win against England.
Errors by a relatively inexperienced home side gave Dan Carter the opportunity to kick three penalties for a final personal tally of 16 points and a first win in a campaign for a grand slam over the four home unions.
"The guys were really hurting after last week," McCaw said. "The way the guys stuck at it, we defended pretty well. We're still guilty of giving too many chances through our own mistakes.
"When you turn it over, England are good enough to put you under pressure, which they did. We got into a bit of an arm wrestle at the end, which is what we didn't want to do."
For England, full-back Ben Foden was a threat, prop Andrew Sheridan solidified the scrum on his return to the side after 20 months out, and the backs usually had several options as they moved the ball at pace on the occasions they did have possession.
"They want to use the ball from turnovers and whatnot and they certainly did that," McCaw said. "More than in the past, you know that if you give them the ball they'll use it."
"Defensively we were a bit sloppy," Nick Easter, England's No 8, said. "First tackles weren't sticking. We switched off for 10 minutes and you can't afford to do that."
Said Martin Johnson, the England manager: "We were rusty in all areas in some ways early on. To go from 14-0 to give ourselves a shot was good. But as a team we weren't at the races quickly enough to be in with a chance at the end."
Australia, meanwhile, weathered early resistance from Wales before pulling clear in the second half to open their end-of-year European tour with a 25-16 win yesterday.
It was Australia's second successive win following last Saturday's triumph over New Zealand in Hong Kong, and even though the team were not at their best in the Welsh capital, their backs were typically clinical, especially man-of-the-match Kurtley Beale.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
World Cup warm up matches
May 24 Pakistan v Afghanistan, Bristol; Sri Lanka v South Africa, Cardiff
May 25 England v Australia, Southampton; India v New Zealand, The Oval
May 26 South Africa v West Indies, Bristol; Pakistan v Bangladesh, Cardiff
May 27 Australia v Sri Lanka, Southampton; England v Afghanistan, The Oval
May 28 West Indies v New Zealand, Bristol; Bangladesh v India, Cardiff
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