All Blacks: Baptism of fire for nervous but resilient Cruden

His father and grandfather were in the grandstand, his left ankle hurt and he had almost doubled the playing minutes in his All Black test career.

It was that sort of mixed night for Aaron Cruden, he was unsure whether to be happy or introspective after the All Blacks somehow grabbed a 23-22 win against the Wallabies in Sydney.

Cruden and Piri Weepu were the new Nos 9-10 combo for the visitors in a Hurricanes-laden backline. That selection formation was to ease Cruden through his first test start after five brief appearances from the bench.

It proved a tough entree. The All Blacks stuttered for much of the test and Cruden found things difficult.

He is clearly resilient, but also needs a lot more work on his game, especially his tactical kicking and restarts, if he is to become a potent international five-eighths.

This week he will go through assessments of his game and talk through his work with the coaches.

The 21-year-old had been anxious before the match, his nerves kicked in when the All Blacks' bus reached the ANZ Stadium and the roars of the 70,288 crowd and anticipation caught up with him.

"I think in the first half I was a little bit tense and when I made mistakes I let it play on my mind a little bit too much," he said. "But I am probably better for the experience and can grow and move on from this."

Cruden overhit his restarts because he was worried about them not going 10m, and that eliminated one of the All Black attacking platforms.

He wrenched his left ankle early on when he fell over a Wallaby. He limped for some time, had the damage strapped at halftime but offered no excuses connected to his injury.

Cruden said he had been most surprised by the intensity and pace of the game, something he had not experienced in his five previous stints from the subs bench.

"I think the 60 minutes I got tonight has almost doubled my international career tally so I will be better for that. I have just got to get used to it," he said.

He was concerned he had not given Weepu enough chat during the game but reckoned he was trying to catch his breath for much of the match. Cruden will have a few weeks mandatory rest before he returns to the ITM Cup.

Halfback partner Weepu saved the All Blacks with a perfect goalkicking performance which contrasted with a wretched practice the day before.

"I think I got about three or four out of 15 then I threw it away," Weepu said.

He was worried how that shocker would translate under the pressure of test day in front of a crowd. Had he been worried the test might come down to a goalkicking contest?

"Before the game I hoped it would not come down to that. It did though but you have got to be able to kick under a whole lot of pressure and Gits [Matt Giteau] is usually good. I guess I was lucky to get them over and he missed points when they were needed."

Weepu's first penalty attempt came after a few minutes and 44m in front of the goal and he nailed it.

The solid halfback lasted until a few minutes from time when he was replaced by Jimmy Cowan.

"I could hardly move, I told them 'get me off I'm buggered'," Weepu said.

He had emptied his tank, run as hard as he could and used the fitness levels he has been building since his mid-season stagger. He thought the Wallabies would have struggled after their trip to Africa and the All Blacks tried to maintain the tempo in the test.

Another regular sub who saw a lot of play was hooker Corey Flynn, who came on after 10 minutes for the injured Keven Mealamu. He had some dodgy lineout throws, but anchored a strong scrum and always felt the All Blacks would win.

It was a victory they wanted desperately after the emotional week of the Canterbury earthquake.

"We were cool under pressure, there was no panic out there. When you have a leader like Richie [McCaw] nothing phases him," Flynn said.

He was composed like Mils Muliaina, Conrad Smith and Kieran Read and the team never lost faith.

"We wanted to take it to them physically because after South Africa, we thought they would struggle in the last 20."

The plan was field position and pressure, and eventually, the formula came through.