Too slow, too clumsy, too narrow - too bad

Analysis: Sadly, Ireland were completely blown away. The footwork and off-loading skills of the All Blacks were on a different level to the Irish players. So too was their basic catching and handling.

The Irish don't have the footwork and handling skills to put pace on the ball and put players away.

I actually thought there were times when Ireland played quite well and opened New Zealand up a few times. But then they made stupid turnovers, due to inaccuracy, and that's what I was disappointed with.

An example was when Gordon D'Arcy made a clean break through the defensive line, but then the off-load to Geordan Murphy and the line he took was mistimed. You've got to complete those.

Geordan also put the ball out on the full, and he's a better player than that. Then, when they did do a couple of good things toward the end of the first half, after Denis Leamy picked up Leon MacDonald's fumble on the ground, Ronan O'Gara kicked a penalty dead.

What they are constantly doing in New Zealand rugby, in the NPC and the Super 12 through to the All Blacks, is look for the off-load, vary their running angles and use their footwork to attack the shoulder rather than run straight into contact.

I thought at times Ireland had a bit of that in them, and certainly tried to play that way; but they had played so negatively in last season's Six Nations that it's very hard then to make the quantum leap to what they were trying to do on Saturday.

When you're 18 points down and you have a penalty under the posts, you should really take your three points and get on the scoreboard to get a little momentum. I thought Ireland were too quick to start playing some stupid catch-up rugby, and they missed someone like Axel (Anthony Foley) out there.

Defensively, too, you've got to put more pressure on the All Blacks than Ireland did. You've got to really get in their faces and try to force turnovers. But Ireland tended to push sideways across the pitch in defence, when they should have pushed up harder. On a couple of occasions out wide, I thought they defended very passively one-on-one, waiting for the All Black ball carrier to come at them.

The All Blacks had much more pace throughout their team, and particularly out wide. Although Jason Eaton possibly had the angle on Anthony Horgan when he caught him from behind, if one of the All Blacks' wingers had made that intercept you can only think it would have led to a try.

Another aspect of the game which really struck me was that the All Blacks played with fantastic width, really playing from touchline to touchline, ensuring one-on-one contests out wide with the wingers. This led to most of the tries and might have led to a few more.

By comparison, on a few occasions I thought Ireland became very narrow. There were times when all 15 players were in a 15- or 20-metre zone, and there wasn't sufficient width to their game.

At times, too, they didn't really look like they knew what they were trying to do. They were playing with a bit of hope, really, and the Irish backs were a little bit lateral.

The All Blacks rarely kicked the ball out, and so didn't give Ireland any lineouts. Instead, they kicked long and chased. Ireland then tried to run it back and put themselves under pressure a few times when they might have been better off playing a bit of ping-pong.

While you would have expected Ireland to be blown away in the collisions or the breakdown, you wouldn't have expected the Irish scrum to get blown away as well. It was completely destroyed on a few occasions, although Leamy did quite well, under the circumstances, off the base.

In the last 10 minutes or so, I thought Peter Stringer started to vary his game more and that made quite a lot of difference to the Irish game. Before that, he just stood at the base and serviced the ball out. That was no threat to the All Blacks, so their fringe defenders were just able to take a few steps up and out, because they knew there was no real threat.

But when he changed a few of his running angles he put a little doubt in the minds of the defenders.

After a hiding like this, I suppose, the only way Ireland can go is up. All you can do is to continue to raise the bar.

I think England could still give the All Blacks a tough game, by keeping the ball and being more accurate. England have more pace and are physically more equipped to compete with the All Blacks in the collisions than Ireland were. The All Blacks are good at the moment, but it's been easy for them because after 20 minutes they know they're going to win the game and they're playing with confidence.

Graham Henry is going to make more changes now, with more different combinations, and if somebody can stay with them for 30 minutes and put them under pressure, it's going to be an interestingly psychological battle for them.