New Zealand v Ireland First Test: First off, that was a good game of Test rugby. I enjoyed the game. Many people made the comment that it wasn't a great All Blacks performance, to which I said: "Hang on a minute, you've got to give credit to the Irish performance." I thought Ireland played very well.

It was a really good Irish performance. Although they'll be annoyed that they lost, Ireland will have come away with a lot of respect from the New Zealand public and from the All Blacks. And that's a positive.

I thought their ball retention was excellent; obviously their lineout was very good.

And they defended particularly well. That was a big area of concern for me before the game, that the All Blacks would be looking to offload in the tackle. But Ireland were aggressive in the tackle and didn't allow the All Blacks to offload or get quick ball.

The scrum was a bit of a problem though, even if the All Blacks will be annoyed with themselves - and the referee - that they conceded one penalty to Ronan O'Gara and a couple of tap penalties in an area where they were so dominant.

There were a couple of questionable calls against them, for Joe Rokocoko not releasing when he wasn't held and for a high tackle against Luke McAlister. He looked bewildered by that.

For the first Irish try, by Brian O'Driscoll, the All Blacks were a bit narrow, but it was very well executed, and Andrew Trimble's try was an example of them retaining possession well. Ronan (O'Gara) gave a really good pass out of the tackle and I thought he played really well. He kicked well, kicked his goals and passed well. Brian (O'Driscoll) had a good all-round game too.

Scoring in the first minute perhaps gave the All Blacks a false sense of how they should go about the game. Tactically, I would expect them to be a lot more confrontational next week. They'll have noted how they got more joy out of their maul and taking Ireland on around the fringes, and they'll want to take Ireland's legs away from them.

Because I thought Ireland ran out of steam a little. Some players had their hands on their knees and were perhaps struggling with the pace and intensity of the game. The ball was in play for a long time and the All Blacks will be happy that they had 60 per cent of the possession and 60 per cent of the territory.

For Ireland, next week will be about trying to build on this performance, and see if they can play for 80 minutes. One of the things Eddie might have to look at is to really make use of his squad of 22, and look to give some players a good 20 or 25 minutes; get fresh legs earlier, especially in the forwards.

The introduction of Troy Flavell and Jerome Kaino was key and, hopefully, Ireland will learn from that. As this game also showed, Test rugby is a step up in intensity from both the Super 14 and the European Cup. I thought John Hayes and Marcus Horan were struggling a bit by the last quarter.

I was surprised the All Blacks never changed their full lineout structure. That area is where they'll work really hard during the week, and Ireland will look to work on their scrummaging.

There was mixed reaction to Luke McAlister's performance at 10, and while he missed a couple of shots at goal early on and was perhaps trying to offload a bit too much, he found his range and also found of couple of good touch-kicks.

The midfield area was a key, and here I thought Gordon D'Arcy and Brian came out on top. O'Driscoll played particularly well, apart from one sliced kick. Sometimes, in previous games, I thought he could make a couple of errors before producing a moment of magic, but here I thought he was very accurate.

Paul O'Connell too had a good game. He came away from the Lions tour with his reputation tarnished down here. He came with a big reputation but the jury was out with the New Zealand public.

He seemed a bit too psyched up, but apart from the last 10 minutes I thought he was strong in contact and excellent in the air. I know errors crept into his game in the last 10, but that can happen.

Also, that physicality can make him stand out in the Celtic League, and the European Cup, even in the Six Nations, but when you come up against the All Blacks or one of the powerhouses of the game, especially if it's played at this high level, you have to produce that bit more.

That's why these matches are so good for Ireland. When I was Irish coach, I struggled to get these kinds of matches on a more regular basis. You'd have maybe one game against one of the Southern Hemisphere big three, whereas England were playing all of them in November and some IRFU committee members were worried about the psychological damage of suffering defeats to these teams. But you only get better by playing against the best.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)