All Blacks off to a flier with comfortable win

Sam, I didn't think it was all that bad, we were just stuck between first and second gear. My only real concern is that two of the more comfortable looking players -- Kahui and Tuitavake -- create more selection headaches than they solve. For a young side they defended pretty damn well. Any time you hold the opposition tryless it's a decent effort. Individually guys were trying to stake a claim, but as a defensive unit they were pretty cohesive. I sometimes think Henry & Co. are a little guilty of trying to mold every player into a souless "professional", but when you see second stringers defending like that it speaks highly of the All Black training sessions. Ultimately it was a Test they wanted to get over and done with. Now it's by the wayside and I'm looking forward to a stiff challenge from the Irish.

Matta, it seemed to me that the All Blacks were trying to avoid the hit, particularly when they packed down as a seven man scrum. MacIntosh had a rough night and copped to collapsing a few. It didn't help that there wasn't a proper pack behind him or that at one point the scrum was a man done and neither did the four step engagement rule, nevertheless if Woodcock's the finished article then MacIntosh is a great big lump of clay. And scrummaged like it. The Scots, however, were delaying the put in and collapsed a few of their own. They wasted so much time trying to get a push over try that you have to wonder whether it was their sole point of pride. As far as the breakdown goes, I've yet to see an Australian point out Wallaby infringements. You'd think the Wallabies uphold the letter of the law.

Off to a flier: scoreline deceptive and misleading Comfortable win: only in margin but certainly not by performance and effort On the subject of biased refereeing, personally I felt that Barnes was strict but fair in some areas of the game, and not as authoritative in others. The game was very stop start in nature which never suits the All Blacks style of play as it's based so much around continuity and pace. Both the players and the referee contributed to the lack of a spectacle being guilty of committing so many errors. I'm no expert on scrummaging and am still mystified as to who is the culprit when scrums collapse and it's easy to be influenced one way or the other by the commentary whether it's informed or not. I thought that Mackintosh was very lucky not to have been yellow carded when we were defending on our line with a 7 man scrum. Apart from that passage of play who really knows what was going on in the scrums, it was refreshing to read Mackintoshes comments after the match when he admitted that it was a difficult match for him and some of the collapsed scrums were his fault due to "a young fellow trying to have a crack against the old master who knew what he was doing. We butted heads for a while" A lot of the post match criticism from coaches can be taken with a grain of salt especially those from Mr Henry and I expect to hear more from every coach against the All Blacks this tour trying to influence the media and therefore the referee about the illegalities or weaknesses of the All Blacks scrum. We've all seen how this perception can be hard to shake - just ask the Wallabies. The collective performance showed how little rugby some players have had since the NPC and also the difference in class of the top players from the new bloods but I was impressed with Kieran Read and thought that Liam Messam played well. Anthony Boric continues to improve and Stephen Donald was better than at Hong Kong. A scratchy performance by the All Blacks and many of those players will only have the midweek match against Munster to look forward to as I don't expect to see many changes to the top team turning out for the last three tests. The top team will have to find form quickly as Ireland at Croke Park will not be an easy nut to crack, nor Wales and England. Will we see a breakout performance from this team on tour as we did four years ago in their final match against France?

Matta - they never looked capable of pushing the scrum 5 metres back (actually more like 7 to actually get the ball over the line) so you're basically talking bollocks. I've seen a grand total of 1 pushover try in test between tier 1 nations since they started re-setting scrums at 5m, so it's ludicrous to say the Scots were probably going to be able to do so. Apparently you reckon a 'smart ref' should just ignore the laws of rugby. MacIntosh was under the pump and should have been penalised. If the Scots chose to pack down again and he kept doing it, he should have been carded. However, the chances of Scotland actually getting a pushover try were somewhere between slim and none, which is a long way from probable - so your claim it should have been penalty try is just daft.

and for the record.. I never said the ref cost the sctos the game..or that the ref cos anyone who played against the ABs...they are clearly the best team in the world, of that there is no question... Nice one bro

Jerry, have you played much in the tight five.. .the more resets there the more depowered the drive...so lets say youre a prop under pressure, you had been the weaker scrum for the game so far, its the other team put in, your one man down 5 meters off your own line if you keep pulling the scrum down pretty soon the oposition are rooted and cant try for the push over...its actually smart play but a decent ref would spot it and know what to do...Again, its was only the AB loose head 'slipping'....

Eah sorry Cuzz.. I will lear to pull me head in...

Bugga me digger. An Aussie complaining about 1) Conspiracy of Referees to Avoid Penalties (CRAP) when ABs are playing 2) Not being able to understand the Haka. 3) Something about another game invovlving different teams where Aus front row destroyed, meaning another referee should give Scotland a penalty try when playing NZ three years later??? You forgot about McCaw 'cheating' all the time. Even when he's on the bench he does that, did you see him tripping up the linesman? That's probably why the scrum got away with everything. You're not actually Phil Kearns are you? Get it together man. We all have our biases about our own team, but you've got to try and have a little objectivity about comments...

Matta - how does a collapsed scrum possibly justify a penalty try? It wasn't on the verge of conceding a pushover try, whichever way you look at it. For a penalty try to be given, the ref has to be satisfied a try would probably have been scored if not for the infringement. Seeing as the Scots hadn't looked like scoring a try all day, I really don't see how a stable scrum would suddenly mean they're probably gonna score a try. Penalty? Probably. Card? Possibly, for repeat infringements? Penalty try? How? When someone shows they have little grasp of the laws of rugby, it makes it pretty hard to take their rant seriously.

Matta - let me get this straight - the only reason the AB's have an 85% win record is because referees from every country are all part of some vast conspiracy to ensure they win? Dude ! And Wayne Barnes being one of them? Nice try, but I think the real reason they win is because they are better than their opposition 85% of the time, and four tries to nil, coupled with superb defense, were the reasons last night. Barnes did neither team any favours.

well the abs were certainly helped by some terrible scottish play, particularly from the backs..how many time were they in try scoring positions and opportunities but the cocked it up time and time again.. id be pretty pissed if i was scottish coach.

Mate, the All Blacks were penalised at least 10 times. I don't see what the big deal is. What's a two year old Twickenham Test got to do with anything?

well bugga me...two Kiwis saw nothing wrong with the ref...real shock. My major issue was with the kiwi scrum getting away with murder. Again, only one team (bloke) was falling over time after time when the drive came on - and he was a kiwi. There should have been a penatly try or a yellow card given. Or perhaps both like the Wallabies got at twickers for a lot less. My comment about Ali Williams was off cuff...just that BS he does after the Haka makes him look like a goose if you ask me. As for the break down when I find some clips I will post them here for you blokes to find nothing wrong with...

To Donald's credit he set up a couple of tries. I don't think it was a particularly commanding performance and he'll struggle at first five against top level opposition, but there wasn't much of a combination with Weepu. Donald didn't have a lot of playmaking opportunities, because Weepu was looking to get it out wide. I was pretty happy with the way the backs played actually, aside from the fact they kept running out of space on the touch lines. They all went looking for work. It's amazing how much better Joe is in a black jersey and Tuitavake was hungry. Toeava looked good again until the injury. Jane will regret dropping that pass but he was good defensively. We didn't get a hell of a lot of ball and we squandered a fair bit of it. When McCaw subbed on it was noticable how well he links with the backs. The new boys weren't getting stuck in like the tight five usually do, though Messam had some strong runs towards the end. Donald missed that easy kick and had one out of the full, but he also managed a clearing kick from a shocker of a pass. I think he'll be all right in the June Tests, but they'll want Carter back during the Tri-Nations.

OJ Accurate as usual. Shame about the ribs, has just come back from a layoff for that. Having said that, he's not likely to start many games with Cowan and Weepu in the squad. Donald was disappointing again for mine. We need to discover another 10 that can run a game reliably. He's just too flighty under pressure. Agree about Messam. He's another that might stuggle to get near the first team as he's really a 6, and suspect Read will push KAino hard there. I did yell at Blair to put it in a couple of times to put it in. I was disappointed to learn that the Whopper is so named because the masseur/se at the Highlanders said "You're a whopper arent' you" when he hopped up on his/her bench for a rub down the first time. I liked the idea that he had been "Big Mac" previously and then someone got creative (my wife's suggestion...)

Also, Kahui being Man of the Match was all fine and good. Trouble is we already have a good centre.

Ellis took a knock to the ribs. I don't know what matta is on about to be honest. The breakdown was evenly contested and Barnes was consistent in penalising both sides. Scotland seemed to have more possession and won a fair amount of turnovers. There was nothing to suggest that NZ got away with anything at the breakdown. As for the scrum, we struggled -- not only with the Scottish pack but with the four step engagement. What's wrong with "crouch, hold, engage"? Barnes was fairly generous with the resets, but the Scottish halfback was Gregan-like with his put in. Our scrum improved when Tialata came on, but he was noticably better when we had the put in too, which was cynical from us. Messam had a good game in the loose, but struggled at the back of the scrum. We were getting some ugly ball from our own feed, particularly on our try line.

Matta, I think you need to up your medication mate. What did Ali Williams do particularly? What happened to A Ellis? I missed him going off, presumably injured as D Carter had to play at 9. I thought the Scots played fairly OK,competed well up front. The were just missing a couple of dashing backs and they would have given us a hard time. Barnes was very quick with the cards but slow on the penalty. In some ways this is better, IMO, as did seem to improve the contest at the breakdown. Scrums were shambles though, admittedly, and improved when the Whopper went off. Good debut by Messam and especially Read.

question. Is Ali Williams the biggest cock knocker is world rugby?

I dunno how much Henry can take away from this. Defensively it was a pretty good effort, but we should never go into a Test with a front row like that, the forwards didn't win a lot of quality possession and the backs were guilty of going wide too early. Still some of the guys were industrious and I suppose Henry will take note of that. The Scots were enterprising. It's a shame they had nothing to show for it.