The longer this tour has gone on, the more it has become apparent that New Zealanders have no real sense of identity. Or at least they don't have the same depth of understanding of who they are as the Celts and English.

The depth of emotion in these parts is quite extraordinary. Rugby is more than sport, it is a powerful demonstration of nationalism, an expression of culture and years of history, toil, joy, success and failure all packaged into the event.

Take the Scots; the band stopped playing after the first verse of Flower of Scotland before the All Black test. No one skipped a beat - 50,000 people sang the second verse unaccompanied. It was chilling. Everyone sang on because they wanted to let the passion escape, there needed to be an expression of what the test meant, of what being Scottish meant.

Scots don't have to ask each other what it means - it is Bannockburn, Culloden, Adam Smith, Graham Alexander Bell, Ian Fleming, glens, lochs, whisky, tartan, the doomed World Cup of 1978, Local Hero, Simple Minds; the list could go on for a long time.

As it could with the Irish, who made it impossible not be moved close to tears at Croke Park. To hear 83,000 people spontaneously erupt into a rendition of the Fields of Athenry gave an insight into the unity of the Irish people.

Croke Park itself is a monument to the history of Ireland. Its size and sheer imperious stature represents the new face of Ireland as the darling of the European Union, as the Celtic Tiger economy where years of bust were turned into boom by innovation and hard work.

And then there was the Hill, the scene of an atrocity almost 90 years earlier that sits as a reminder of the hardships, the pain, the struggle, the anger and humiliation the Irish felt under English rule. This is a land that has bled into its own rivers, given up lives to preserve the Irish identity and cultural tools that make it such a spiritual place.

It will be much the same in Wales this morning. Nearly 75,000 people will sing Land of My Fathers in a language only they understand. The red jerseys represent the valleys, the coal mines, Merthyr Tydfil and other long names short on vowels.

The Celts, England and France have such a defined sense of identity and they pour the whole lot into every test they host. The All Blacks have found it is not 15 versus 15, it is 15 versus 75,000.

That the All Blacks always win doesn't impact upon the occasion, for the Home Nations and France see the expression of their nationalism as almost being more important than the result. They, unlike New Zealanders, can still leave the stadium feeling proud of who they are and where they are from when they lose.