Kia kumite

Oh dear, oh dear.

If Hodgson was pulled for "unacceptable at test level" tackling, why was there a backline left for England? 44-12 to the All Blacks, 5 tries, all but one rather attractively scored and the fifth one still scored by slicing through England's inadequate defensive line like it wasn't there.

The studio guests tried to make a case for England's positives. But, England blew (in one case dropping over the line level of blew) 2 more opportunities for tries and I would still say that the score flatters England. England had moments when they kept the ball, but then gave the game away with stupid penalties and poor handling on a regular basis, especially in the first half. Although they kept the ball in hand a bit better, England looked ponderous in attack, absolutely lacking in pace and inspiration, only scoring from a quick tap penalty for one of their tries and from sustained pressure that finally, after about 500 phases, found a small hole in the AB defence. When you point out that the ABs lost Ali Williams after about 10 minutes and their line out suffered thereafter, and McCaw after about 20 minutes and their turn over rate didn't really suffer thereafter, if sums up the difference in class. When you add the 5 tries to the mix, well, that's it.

The scrums were rock-solid for the ABs including wheeling one and disrupting several so the ball for England was rarely good. The tackling was frankly brutal. You might see a picture of Tait covered in blood on the news - that's from a totally legal, albeit very hard hit, and it really summed up the difference.

The All Blacks do have things to work on - Lauaki had a bit of a tendency to drop the ball, McCaw's injury seemed fairly bad, but there was no news of what happened and he could be back for the Tri-Nations), and as already mentioned without Williams the AB line out suffered - the loss of that primary target meant everyone else suffered a bit more. But, you would have to say that the All Blacks came out of this with many positives and some areas to work on.

Graham Henry pulled a few rabbits, metaphorically speaking, out of the hat. Conrad Smith has real competition for his shirt, Kahui played a blinder - he made that tackle that left Tait bloody and scored a try. Who was Jerry Collins? Thompson had a couple of jittery bits, but otherwise played a blinder, and was only denied a try by a questionable call from the TMO (albeit a very hard call in fairness).

England came out of it with a shattered look and I bet they're pleased they're leaving tomorrow, I bet some wish they were leaving tonight to be spared the press in the morning. You have to wonder what Johnson can do. Where can he go? England's ultra-defensive line-up were shredded. Their youth have been demoralised and outplayed, their old hands rarely held those hands up.

There was great skill shown - but only by one side. Worryingly for the rest of the world, Carter looked like a star, but he didn't shine alone. 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 all looked wonderful, and 11 didn't do a bad job either, he just got used less so didn't shine, but he looked good enough. The pack away from the line outs all looked great too, and outplayed their opposites. Poor Ellis is the only person not to get a mention for looking great. He, like, 11, played a thoroughly sound game, he chivied forwards, fed backs as required, and never looked in trouble. He didn't really need to spark the world alight because everyone around him was doing that today.