"* That Europe is closing in on the south and that even on home soil the All Blacks are vulnerable."

"* That New Zealand needs to brush up on old arts like rolling mauls or all the flair in the world will count for nothing."

I disagree that Europe is closing in on the south, only because of the ELVs. Now that we've sorted the rules out once and for all, I believe that you'll see Sth Africa and ourselves revert back to our traditional forward oriented games. We do need to brush up on the old arts, but as the ABs showed in the weekend, a boot up the backside is a wonderful and an effective incentive to make people focus. The under 20s final also showed why I disagree about Europe catching up. If they haven't figured out that forward dominance in todays game MUST be complimented by pace and skill, and haven't passed that on to their age groups, what hope do they have for the future? Their problem, not ours. We're in no way anywhere near the golden path, and by this I mean our domestic competion needs sorting out.

Why is Henry so adament with using McAlister, There were 1st 5s who played S14 this year who should get a run before Luke, they didn't run overseas to get the big bucks & hide after the world cup debacle. As Brad thorn said in his post if you can't give a 110% to the Jersey don't put it on. We need to get back to what the Jumper means, & the pride you need to wear it, Put some of the under 20's stars in against Italy, they are the same as when Luke got in, or does Henry owe him something. I'm a proud Kiwi living in Aussie for the last 35yrs & I put the jumper on before every test & back the boys, & my country, they have to do the same. Lets go back to the big tours of the 60's & 70's where the small unions played international teams aswell. I can remember watching Pierre Villpreaux do a drop goal from his 22 at Mclean Park Napier against a strong Hawkes Bay side & watched it sail through & the whole crowd stood & cheered, the money has taken the gloss off it all. Show some Kia Kaha

Good article - very positive writing.

Seems that we have lost our so called "flair", not sure if this is due to miss Dan Carter or just the limitations with the current selections. We seem to be fairly predictable in the backline. I often wonder how devastating we could be if we played with a bit more depth like the Aussies tend to do - can you imagine the problems Nonu would produce if he was running onto the ball at pace rather than having his usual 2 metres of space to get going? let along the change of angle we could use. No longer do we have the players of old like Christian Cullen or Jeff Wilson that seemed to sparks things from nothing.

I have to agree with most of this although I'd like to add that we also learned that numbers 1-5 need to do their job properly for the rest of the team to function.

We learned that the players we thought were our world-class players really are world-class players and influence games significantly.

We learned that there are some young guys who have the skills and temperament to play at test level such as Ross, Jane, Read, and Latimer.

The most significant thing we learned was that Brad Thorn is probably under appreciated as a hard man, workhorse, and inspiration to the young guys. The way he threw himself into that last game was superb.

The games were great contest to watch, better than any other June tests since that English one. Good on the French - I look forward to them playing the Wallabies this week.

Pity Henry did not let the All Blacks know how they could win the trophy though. I live in Sydney now and today faced constant stick in relation to the All Blacks being unable to count. Embarrassing.

I would have defended Henry, but I completely disagree with the way he devalues competitions outside of the world cup (ie the 2007 Super 14, the NPC on life support and now the Dave Gallagher trophy).

Don't start me on the McAlister Muiliana perfect strangers midfield combo in the world cup quarter final.

I feel better after that vent.