NZ v Ireland

It would be fair to say that the weather played a big role in this match - it was hammering with rain and there was a driving wind pretty much straight along the pitch, against the ABs in the first half, against Ireland in the second.

Despite the UK TV commentators, who both seemed very biased pro-Ireland, a first half that ended 8-8 wasn't bad for the ABs, although with a little luck they could have been further ahead. In the second half their superior fitness and speed off the mark, plus the benefit of the wind, stretched that to a comfortable 21-11 win. Looking at the match, it was never really in doubt as far as I was concerned - really it was only the weather and the referee that kept it down to a 10 point margin.

Now, I'm going to try and restrain myself from slating Chris White. I will admit I'm partial to one of these sides, but it did appear he was too. There was lots of commentary about policing the breakdown, and the changes to the laws. Perhaps they missed the bit where the only change was to make life harder with an offside line, and to alter the nature of the kick awarded from penalty to free kick in all the frothing about how evil the ELVs are? Chris White claimed he was just going to referee the laws as normal - so why did every time the Irish maul was going forward and then piled up, it turn out some evil AB had collapsed it, but in the other direction, it was "just a slip" or similar? Why are men in green allowed to pull the scrum half into a ruck (that's a penalty under both law sets) but a hand in a black sleeve goes near a green-clad scrum half and it's a penalty? That's called bias isn't it? When ROG dived into a ruck from the side - and I mean parallel to the 22 from the side, so offside as well, about 3m away from White as he was looking that way, that's not a penalty. Um, under what laws? Ali Williams hits a green player over the ball, driving up if the fact the players feet left the ground is any indication, in a breakdown and then goes down from the hit. Apparently that's "diving over" and worth a penalty. At least it was to Chris White. OK, that might not sound like I restrained myself, but trust me, I did.

The commentators were worse. When the ABs kicked into the wind, every kick was "terrible" and "that's so short" but when Ireland did it was "great into this gale." Um, no. A little fairness doesn't go amiss.

It wasn't a fully polished performance. Carter wasn't at his best. Neither was Muliaina. Once MacDonald came on, the ABs looked a lot more secure. That might sound like a contradiction to my earlier statement that they always looked under control - but both are true. Ireland didn't really look threatening except that once that they scored their try, but the ABs didn't look totally secure. Once MacDonald came on, they did.

Despite the comments of the experts, my comments from yesterday bore fruit. The Munster pack were outplayed in the loose, at the breakdown, at the edges of the breakdown, in the scrum and at line out. That's every single aspect of forward play and the ABs were just better at each of them. The loose forward "experiment" basically worked. There were a couple of times it might have been a bit creaky, but overall they massively outplayed their opposite numbers. And just for the extra fillip, the first AB try occurred because Smith showed his class and beat BOD all ends up, and in particular for a step and for pace.

It's a shame, perhaps, that the weather wasn't better - it did encourage both sides to keep it tight. Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, some variety would have been nice, but the weather was so bad it was never going to happen - by the time the ABs could have been playing with gay abandon because Ireland were totally out of it, the wind and rain was worse and passing the ball was even harder.

I suspect this has settled some butterflies for the ABs. It's worth saying, by the way, their surprise selection of the Highlander's flanker seems inspired. He was on for Soaialo a couple of times and seemed to fit right in. Ireland might go away feeling OK about themselves, but I suspect the Munster pack won't, and shouldn't, and in a match that was played in such lousy weather, if the forwards can't play, you will always lose - as they did.