All Blacks more stupid than courageous (+photos, videos)

NZ's Ali Williams is confronted by Australia's Al Baxter. Photo / Getty Images

The All Blacks straddled that fine line between bravery and stupidity last night and ended up putting the emphasis too heavily on the latter.

As a consequence, New Zealanders really will wake up this morning and wonder if they let the wrong coach go at the end of last year.

This was a victory for the roundhead in Robbie Deans as much as it was a failing of the cavalier in Graham Henry.

There were times when the All Blacks were thrilling, when their skills were absorbing and their ambition admirable.

But too often it felt like this whole run from everywhere policy was misguided - an attempt by Henry to outfox Deans when really, the All Blacks should have just stuck to their knitting and worked the flair in and around the territorial stuff.

The All Blacks' skills weren't good enough for long enough to live with their ambition.

And the Wallabies didn't roll over and play dead the way they needed to for such an expansive game to work.

When Henry comes to look back on this game, he might just wonder why on earth he didn't get the message on to the field for Dan Carter to hoof the blessed ball down the park.

He might just regret not persevering with Chris Masoe because, for 40 minutes, Daniel Braid was off the pace.

That was hardly surprising, as he's barely played in the last five weeks and it hurt the All Blacks.

Such an expansive game plan needed a No 7 at the peak of his craft to make it work and it wasn't fair on Braid to ask so much on such limited preparation.

And once Braid made way for Sione Lauaki, again Henry might ask why the All Blacks didn't tighten up, as Jerome Kaino and Lauaki couldn't give Rodney So'oialo the support he needed at the breakdown.

What Henry might argue is that the longer the game went on and the longer the All Blacks refused to kick the ball, the more they became committed to persevering.

It had to be that way because they forced the Wallabies into making an extraordinary number of tackles and the more they made, the more likely it was the Australians would be on their knees come the closing 10 minutes.

That was the theory but the Wallabies didn't crack and what had potential to be brave ended up being stupid.