All Blacks: ABs enter home stretch

Only Wales stand in the way of a third grand slam during the reign of Graham Henry.

Given that an occasionally misfiring All Black side beat Ireland by 20 points and Wales drew 16-16 with Fiji in the weekend, it does not appear to be much of an obstacle.

New Zealand got a little ahead of themselves at a renovated Lansdowne Rd stadium, but a withering three-try burst either side of halftime showed why they are near unbeatable on these end-of-year tours.

Until Anthony Boric's try on the stroke of halftime, Ireland had made life difficult for the All Blacks.

On attack, they were winning the battle in the collision area and made life difficult for Ma'a Nonu in particular with the quick ball they won.

On defence, they fanned out quickly and dealt easily enough with New Zealand's touchline-to-touchline approach.

But what they, the Scots and England lack is a cutting edge. When Ireland turned over the ball the All Blacks invariably scored, when New Zealand returned the favour, they had time to recover from their errors.

The accusation of Northern Hemisphere teams being stodgy, kick-and-clap outfits no longer holds true. All have demonstrated a willingness to attack with the ball in hand, but they still remain some way behind in their ability to find space and take full advantage of still-forming defensive lines.

"I wouldn't argue with that," Ireland coach Declan Kidney lamented when told that New Zealand captain Richie McCaw had pointed to his side's ability to score from broken play as the difference between the teams.

"We put our defence under enormous pressure by turning the ball over a few times. We gave them opportunities to score. We managed to stifle them quite a few times, but if you're going to give them 10 opportunities they're going to score their four."

It was a point echoed by impressive No 8 Jamie Heaslip, whose strong performance was a counterpoint to his brain-freeze in New Plymouth in June, when he was sent off in the first half of the 66-28 walloping.

"We made mistakes in that 10-15 minute period and they showed how efficient they are."

If he was to be completely accurate, he would have said "how efficient they can be", because up to that point the All Blacks had been, by the high standards set at Murrayfield, relatively inefficient.

Blessed by plenty of early possession, the All Blacks tried to play with width before they had earned the right. In not sending enough bodies to the breakdown and attacking on the fringes, they allowed Ireland's defence to spread.

What followed was 39 minutes of frustration before Anthony Boric scored a fortuitous try following Andy Ellis' fumble at the back of a ruck.

"I thought we played some pretty good rugby in the first half and perhaps did not get the rewards for it. That vital score just before halftime picked the guys up," McCaw said. "From then on the game felt in reasonable control."

Henry professed himself happy with the way his side had absorbed Ireland's pressure and had not panicked and, in truth, they'll learn more from this performance than they would have from the thrashing of an under-prepared Scotland.

They had to work for this win and, despite some first half angst, they still beat a fired-up Ireland side by 20 points.

It makes you wonder what, if anything, Wales can possibly throw at the All Blacks to hurt them.

When you look at other results in these November internationals - Scotland beating South Africa and England beating Australia - it is hard not to reach the conclusion that Hong Kong was an anomaly and the All Blacks are miles ahead of the chasing pack.

Having been down this route before, the All Blacks will guard against such hubris and will talk up Wales, despite the horror they produced against Fiji.

"We won't read too much into that game," said two-try No 8 Kieran Read. "We'll probably look at how they played South Africa because they were competitive in that game and probably should have won."

Read said there was no chance of the team taking anyone lightly when there was a grand slam on the line.

"It's only been done three times. It takes a lot to get it and we want to be the team to do it."