KEY POINTS:
It had been five years since Brad Thorn crossed the tryline for the All Blacks.
When he got the ball with two Irish backs in the 10m space between him and the Croke Park tryline, the All Black lock tucked the pigskin into his massive torso and gunned his frame through the defenders and across the white stripe.
He could laugh later that he was awarded the try and his locking partner Ali Williams was earlier denied the same honour by the television match official.
Five years ago in the All Blacks' World Cup start against Italy at Melbourne, Thorn scored one of the team's 11 tries in their 70-7 demolition best known for the tournament-ending injury to Tana Umaga.
"It's been a long time and it is really nice," Thorn said of his third andlatest test try.
Earlier in the test he had another chance but chose to offload a flick pass. In retrospect, he said, he should have backed his power and emulated his second-half charge. Both teams had their moments when play flowed but errors had hurt both teams.
Thorn felt the All Blacks' attack got too lateral too often.
The 33-year-old thought a greater directness to their play to commit the defenders would have helped some of the patterns.
The fortnight off for the bulk of the test side had left most of them a little edgy and Thorn said it was probably the most "nervous" he had felt since the Wellington test this year against the Springboks when he was cited and suspended.
"Obviously, I behaved well tonight, it was played in a good spirit. A lot of us were excited. I wanted the game to just keep going to be honest.
"For me I feared the Irish, I feared losing. There is a history of about 20 tests and no loss and it is something that at the Broncos, we used to fear. Teams always want to knock you off and I think that is a good thing. It was nice to be nervous at my age - 82,000 people, a very special place where I wanted to play and I just knew it was a big event and just feel very privileged to be involved."
Thorn felt the All Blacks always had the upper hand although he conceded there were many scrappy periods in the test. They needed to keep their hard edge though, their tough mental approach if they were to succeed in their next two Grand Slam challenges.
"Come next Saturday we have got to start physical. Kick-off is going tobe brutal again so it is all about getting all steeled up for the competition going up again."
The All Blacks had worn down the passion from Ireland and had a backline which was able to outmanoeuvre their rivals. They had also shown great resilience to keep their tryline clean for the secondsuccessive test.
Thorn felt there was some special character in this All Black side which was starting to replicate the deeds of sides led by Sean Fitzpatrick when they could hang tough and win ugly, even if they were struggling.
"It has been a while since I have seen that and this year it has really come out, and for me as an older guy, it is great to be part of it and to see a team get that sort of character and it is going to be exciting to see where it goes."
