Mitchell avoids black spots on road to achieving victory

Still a game of two hemispheres. Still a game of one result. The All Blacks acknowledged Ireland's steep climb on the international learning curve but their bullish confidence didn't waver.

"No, we weren't really worried at half-time," said 20-year-old openside flanker Richard McCaw. "If we kept doing what we were doing in the first half maybe. We knew we'd to regain our composure, which had fallen a little bit. We knew if we played the way we wanted to play and stuck to our game plan then things would happen.

"They threw everything they had at us and we expected them to do that but we probably gave them a lot more opportunities than we would have liked, knocked the ball on, gave penalties. They thrived on it and played well. It took most of the first half to try to get into the game."

Coach John Mitchell was less inclined to dissect the first half, at least in the public eye. Still building a side, which by All Black standards is possibly fragile, he sought to explain what strengths his side brought to Lansdowne Road to win the match.

"Are you trying to focus on the negative, are you," replied the tetchy coach to a New Zealand writer. "We were rusty in the first half, we admit that. The Irish didn't surprise us. It is probably one of the best Irish sides I've seen in my time. You tell me how many Irish teams have won 10 Test matches from their last 13 in the last 20 years."

From the former team-mate of Irish coach Warren Gatland, that was just about enough cosying up to the defeated Irish. Generous to within the bounds of polite society but not a step beyond.

"The game lasts about 85 minutes these days doesn't it. We set out and achieved what we wanted to achieve. We will learn a lot from that, gain a lot of character. It will be a stepping stone in a lot of the boys' careers.

"In the second half we needed to keep the ball for longer periods of time and to get to the portion of the field we wanted to. But I didn't think that was too far away."

Centre Tana Umaga, who had a quiet game by his standards, was more generous to the Irish effort of Kevin Maggs and Brian O'Driscoll.

"I knew that if we could hold on to the ball we would do well but in the first half we didn't do that. Ireland came out and did what they wanted to do and dictated how the game was being played," said the converted winger.

"Personally I was pretty disappointed with my performance and I'll be looking at things I did wrong but Ireland played great. O'Driscoll is a class player and I thought Maggs was really strong. I'd say O'Driscoll would say the same in that we didn't get that much opportunities. That's the thing when you have big forwards. The game was won up front and we just chugged along."

Chris Jack, the 6ft 7ins lock, who peeled from behind the Kiwi scrum just before half-time and flattened the unflinching 5ft 7ins Peter Stringer for the first All Black try, was more effusive.

"I just picked up the ball at the scrum and was a bit shocked to see the half-back in front of me. I was pretty happy," he said. With an advantage of 12 inches in height and 6st 8lbs in weight, the young lock's elation was probably not out of order.

"In the first half we were playing as well as we could but Ireland wouldn't let us play. They were awesome. That was one of the toughest Tests I've played this year."