Agreed, it was "only" against a club side, but the All Blacks' resplendent offence on a filthy day in west Wales was quite breathtaking. The tourists began their ninematch tour with 13 tries, although they woefully muffed a succession of goal-kicks which might have posted the century on the old, evocative scoreboard. But if this was a jet-lagged exercise in rubbing the sleep out of their eyes - most of them have not played for over a month - then, when they are fine-tuned, heaven help Ireland, Wales and, twice, England on the next four weekends.
It is 25 years since Llanelli famously beat Ian Kirkpatrick's All Blacks 9-3. So here, in the same, packed cockpit of rugby legend, was a vengeance with knobs on. And if it was "candy from babies", then it was still a dumbfounding exposition of that patronising act.
Within half an hour, the raucous, rain-sloshed throng had become, quite simply, speechless. Phil Bennett, hero of 1972, said he had never heard his Stradey so pin-drop silent. They know their rugby down there all right; but this was rugby on a different plane to what they thought they knew.
At the end, the courageous but severely chastened 15 shadowchasers in torn and muddied scarlet flopped on to their dressingroom benches. Their coach, Gareth Jenkins, another 1972 lionheart, began to laugh, loudly. One by one, ruefully at first, the players joined in.
"It was necessary to lighten the mood, realise we'd been outclassed only by a team from another planet," said Jenkins. "We just didn't know what the hell was happening out there," said one player. "We just couldn't live with such skills," said another. "How can we offer reasons or excuses when it was something that we'd simply never experienced before," said a third.
Christian Cullen, attacking fullback, was sublime. So was Jeff Wilson, wizard on the wing. The game of Taine Randell at number eight was almost operatic in its grandeur. Ian Jones is as terrific as ever, Josh Kronfeld as electrically supercharged . . . to name the other 10 would be to run out of adjectives.
After Cullen had in no time announced his ravishing talent with a slicing opening try, no more came for 20 minutes. The next dozen came every five minutes, and from every bewildering point of the compass and many of them through seven or eight hands. The running of various angles was stunning. It was a masterclass all right, and one that never let up.
The All Blacks coach, John Hart, thought the beginning "too rusty - but then we sustained skill levels and forward momentum very positively". "
Said Jenkins, "It would be negative after such a defeat to warn others. No club side can live with them, that's for sure. But what international side will do much better than we did? Fifty or 60pointers in the next three internationals wouldn't surprise me in the least."
Nor would it anybody who was wet, wincing and awestruck at Stradey on Saturday.
Scorers - New Zealand: Tries: Cullen 4, Wilson 2, Hewitt 2, Jones, Kronfeld, Marshall, Z Brooke, Ieremiah. Conversions: Mehrtens 2, Wilson 2, Preston. Llanelli: Penalty: Warlow.
Llanelli: Williams; Proctor, Boobeyer, S Jones, Leech; Warlow, Moon (Thomas 60); R Jones (Williams-Jones 75), McBryde, Gale, Ford, Voyle, Wyatt, Jenkins (Morris 40), I Jones.
New Zealand: Cullen; Wilson (Stanley 56), Bunce, Ieremiah, Osborne; Mehrtens (Preston 72), Marshall; Dowd, Hewitt, Brown, Jones, R Brooke, Blowers, Randell, Kronfeld (Z Brooke 51). Referee: B Camsall (England).
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