why oh why has Henry not used Demalmanche this season? It defies belief that a man of his obvious strength and ability was not once used against Sth Africa. That said, the win on Saturday was a thrashing and very satisfying... long may it continue !!!!

So many haters when we lose, so many haters when we win. Why can no one just unconditionally support the All Blacks?

Why does everyone take it so personally when we lose (or even win) as if when the All Blacks lose they are doing it just to spite the public?? FFS - they are trying to win every game... sometimes you are beaten by a better team.

And that's what happen on Sat - we were the better team, and we crushed Australia. Let's just enjoy it (I certainly did).

@Pat #25: "the only reason the AB's [sic] won was the Assies were dreadful wkae [sic] up smell the roses". So when we lose it's all our fault because we are hopeless and the coaches are brainless and the lineout is a shambles and the players are over-paid, under-performing primma donnas... but when we win, and win bl**dy well, it's nothing to do with us, but all to do with how poor the opposition are?? Talk about hypocritical. I'm almost surprised you didn't add "Deans is still a much better coach than Henry, despite the fact that his team was completely headless, hopeless and useless, on Saturday."

Some "fans" are pathetic.

how in the hell do you figure that? The Australian team and forward pack are in a worse state than ours at the moment. Taking a mere two throws off of them is certainly nothing to write home about.

the only reason the AB's won was the Assies were dreadful wkae up smell the roses

After his comments during the week about the press and over expectant supporters, Hansen should have fronted up and shared in Henrys gloat. These guys (players and coaches)get paid to perform, and we the public are doing the paying so we can critic when we feel things aren't going well. If Hansen doesn't like it he should look for another job.

I too agree with #14. We need to string many more games than that together with the same performance in the line outs. Then I'll stop knocking Hansen. The line outs have been pretty abysmal for the last six odd seasons. How long has Hansen been in charge of coaching the line out??? And it was an Aussie line out after all - not a South African one. Not to belittle the effort the forwards put in, in all other areas and the backs were sublime. Long may it continue.

An improved performance and easily the best of the year.

Still I think we need to be very realistic in our appraisal of the AB's season. Clearly across the board in all teams at super 14 level and Air NZ cup, there needs to be an emphasis on developing the lineout, and the ability to handle the aerial game. The scrum was fixed, let's do something about the other two.

I hope that honesty can cut to the level that, if additional help or input is needed in regards to line outs, we do it. Surely plenty of white board sessions and video review (I am sure they do a lot any way) can bring some improvement.

Finally, the end of the year tour. I note Henry has said one or two young players at most will make the end of year tour. I can only hope this can mean a young five eighth in the place of Donald. Well not to blame, his robotic play has definitely added to the lack of confidence and smoothness that the AB's have displayed. let's groom some one else eh?

Good on you Steve, stick it up all those moaning minnies! The MOAN when we lose world cups but win in between and they MOAN now when we drop a few on the way to the next world cup. I think they and people like Deaker and Willie whats his name just like to MOAN! its good for ratings. No big stories when we win eh, ratings will be low on Talk Back this week!!! I call it SBR. Sad Bas..d Radio.

This was a pretty good test match, from a New Zealand perspective. I thought the urgency at the breakdown won the game for the AB's.

The scrums were a shambles and the IRB really have to do something there. I think the refs should call it like a musical rhythm. 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 = crouch and touch and pause engage. Either that or bring it back to the front rows to call the scrums.

But nice to see the AB's string it together for a test. Shame the next game isn't until the end of October but it'll be nice to watch some more Air NZ Cup which has been the most entertaining rugby I've seen in a long time!!

hahahah, It does not matter how good the AB's play, the are all ways are gonna have there haters. And the haters are all Deans supporters, Dean's may have had an easy run there at the crusaders, Taking over from Wayne and co that had laid the platform for the franchise. AB's were awesome and they are not that far behind the boks, If the AB's had a decent line out last week that would have been more then enough to have beaten the Boks, it that simple.