David Leggat: Power, passion and pressure behind victory

A job well done, based on three important P principles: power, passion and pressure.

After a month of tepid trials, there could be no quibbles with this All Black display and afterwards the third of those P words was being applied to a variety of aspects of the test.

Pressure on the team to perform after three patchy performances; pressure on the Australian scrum (would that old stager Bill Young have really been any worse than young bucks Guy Shepherdson and Greg Holmes?); pressure on the Wallaby backline.

Like "great" and "tragedy", the word pressure can be wrongly, and grossly overused.

But if the All Blacks felt the need to restate their credentials after an ordinary month of test rugby, they went a long way to achieving it before a Jade Stadium crowd pockmarked with empty seats.

Take Keven Mealamu. His form this year had been, by his standards, average.

On Saturday night, he rose to the challenge, scoring two first-half tries to put the All Blacks into a lead they never surrendered.

Both showed his strength and expertise close to the opposing line. He epitomised the All Blacks' display, which smacked of a collective resolve to do a job on the Wallabies.

A modest man, Mealamu put his tries down to "just a bit of luck", but when he was asked a third time if he was happy to have scored twice, he must have been sorely tempted to say "nah, pretty upset really".

"We were able to apply pressure when they had one man down. It's quite hard when you've got a loosie [No 8 Rocky Elsom in the sin bin] out, especially defensively and we were able to exploit that," he said.

Mils Muliaina put the test into perspective; five more Tri-Nations matches lie ahead.

"It's a good starting point. We still have a few things to work on. We'll have a look at the tape and hopefully we can build on it."

As for his night at centre? Might he fancy it come World Cup time next year?

"Who knows mate? Having had a taste of it, I wouldn't mind some more," he said. Perhaps the New Zealand Rugby Union were sensing a bit of pressure themselves as the Kapa o Pango version of the haka was performed before kickoff.

This was just the third time, the other occasions being against South Africa and England once each last year.

The union had quietly asked the All Blacks to set this haka, with its throat-slitting action, aside while they had a good look at it.

So as it ended on Saturday, a press statement was handed out, a combined education/justification pamphlet from HQ.

It claims all sorts of statistical support both for the haka and the controversial gesture within it.

It described the final word Ha, combined with the gesture, as representing "drawing vital energy into the heart and lungs".

Last year one explanation for the throat-slitting was that it symbolised the cutting edge of sport.

There's no sign of that now. Now there's apparently a need for "greater public understanding of haka".

When an institution feels the need to go to such lengths to justify the actions of its headline act, it sounds like they're a bit twitchy at public reaction.

If the players want to do the Kapa o Pango, better by far simply to box on and do it.

Referring to the poll results from Colmar Brunton, the union says "the need for education is highlighted by the fact that ... 37 per cent of New Zealand also think the final gesture should be removed".

Whether by accident or design, that has a serious whiff of arrogance about it.

If people choose to dislike that gesture, surely that's their prerogative.