The kick on Leonard is a tougher one. Personal opinion is that it would be one of those things, but I also acknowledge the point of view put to me today that “It is no different from a player jumping to catch the ball. If he jumps and is tackled, it is called dangerous and a penalty even if the tackler was committed. So same thing – a kick in the head is just as dangerous, more so than many of the air tackles, and the intent of the kicker shouldn’t matter.”

Still, it’s 4-1 on games so far so not looking good for the NH.

However, Dingbat, “the NH can’t be bothered to play these games” is absolute nonsense and disrespectful. Some of the summer tours may have been short-changed by France and England, but the November Internationals are always contested with best squads available – by the NH teams anyway.

Regardless, the early tackle happened before he grabbed the ball, so that was the earlier offence (at which stage the ref should have called advantage over and awarded Wales a scrum).

I think in black and white any player that dives on the loose ball can do no more because it is illegal to play the ball on the ground.But of course if a player does dive on the loose ball, what then? Law 14 is pretty unclear.

And yeah, I’m sure refs often realise a call is wrong a split second after they make it but don’t want to back down.

As an aside, it would be interesting if you could anonimously interview a ref and ask him if the’ve ever blown a penalty and immediately realised they were wrong but had to go along with it to save face. I reckon it happens more times than we care to think about.

But yeah – McCaw played the ball on the ground, but he was actually entitle to do so. It wasn’t a tackle situation, he was diving on a loose ball. In that situation, you’re entitled to place the ball after you dive on it. And this was after he’d been early tackled. It wouldn’t have been a penalty to the AB’s, however, cause I think Joubert was playing advantage from a Carter knock on.

As for the Eaton decision – you read it right, no All Blacks were bound. It’s not exactly unheard of the attacking team to get their timing wrong when trying to set up a driving maul. In this case they did, but got away with it. Eaton was the first All Black to engage the ‘maul’ unless you count the lineout jumper (I think it was Read) who came into contact with the Welsh jumper.

All in all it was a good tough game and the better side won.

I don’t normally agree with Tony Johnson as he’s far too biased and shrill for my liking, but he was right to point out that Colin Meads got sent off for pretty much the same offence.

Carter’s tackle should have been a penalty yes, but I reckon a yellow would be an over-reaction (I also think it would have been a bit much to card Jones, but that should have been a penalty also).

Read was penalised for diving over the top when he was actually driven off his feet by the Welsh fullback coming in from the side – Stephen Jones missed a shot at goal.

McCaw was penalised for playing the ball on the deck when he was actually tackled early trying to dive on the loose ball. Jones kicked a goal from this.

Eaton was penalised for coming into a ‘maul’ offside, but no All Blacks were ever bound meaning it was never a maul at all. Should have been a kickable penalty to the AB’s for obstruction.

And as has been pointed out, Stephen Jones got away with a reckless hack that could have injured Leonard. Or indeed that they got away with a fair few infringements in that 5 minute spell with the AB’s camped on their line. Many refs would have pinged them off the park and issued a card in that phase.

But no, it’s only the calls that went against them that are relevant.

I do like Edwards tacit admission that his team can’t win playing 15 on 15. I wonder how his players feel about that?

Well the ball was loose and there to be kicked, it was an unfortunate incident.

The Carter one should have been a penalty and a possible yellow card, but I don’t believe it would have impacted on the overall result.

The TMO got all the decisions right, and overall the All Blacks deserved to win.

The ABs definitely deserved the win. They controlled the game better. Lineouts were even – a slight advantage to the ABs. Scrums were a bit of a mess with the surface being chopped up and Crockett penalised three times for putting his hand on the ground during engagement. Breakdown ABs definitely superior and all class under the high ball – especially new boy Guildford and the classy Corey Jane.

The nonsense about the Carter tackle is typical Welsh whinging. Those guys always have to whinge about something. Carter is not the sort of player who makes deliberate high shots. Henry is right. He went around the chest and shoulders and the Welsh scrumhalf dropped his head. These things always look worse on repeated replays. And the whingeing local broadcasters milked it. Far worse was the Welsh player who kicked Leonard in the head while he was on the ground. Not even a penalty for that one.

Henry is catching the Arsenal manager disease – “I didn’t see it really, started on his chest and slid up”. But I saw all three disallowed tries better than the TMO and one of them should have been a try.

Maybe he should get Arsene’s number….