Richard Loe: Back to the drawing board for selectors

The most relieved people in New Zealand right now will be the All Black selectors. It was a starkly below-par performance from the All Blacks and they can count themselves more than a little lucky to win.

Their lineout was a mess, they didn't take advantage in the scrums as they should have against a poor Irish scrum and they were mostly outpointed by some aggressive Irish forwards in general play.

Even worse was the fact that they didn't react to their own faults - they kept pushing 50-50 passes and making inappropriate passes for the situation.

The list of weaknesses was long. I thought Luke McAlister did well in patches but otherwise looked very fragile - too fragile for our number two first five-eighths and it must be making our selectors think hard.

The scrum was only okay and I thought Keven Mealamu and Greg Rawlinson looked tentative. I hate to say it but they played a bit like the Blues have played all season and it looks like we haven't seen the last of the Blues syndrome yet.

Marty Holah got taken off early and the Richie McCaw-Holah double act at flanker didn't seem to work.

But Jerome Kaino didn't make much of an impact when he came on, so I don't think all the blame can be levelled at Holah.

Troy Flavell did well when he came on. He was confrontational and aggressive and was sorely needed in an All Black pack which took 60 minutes to get into the game and did not impose themselves on the opposition.

The Irish did. Locks Paul O'Connell and Donncha O'Callaghan, were hard-working and tough-minded and the whole back row did well, particularly in general play.

The Irish weak link, however, was halfback Peter Stringer. He really did not translate the hard work and hard yards gained by the forward pack to the Irish backline - where Brian O'Driscoll was hugely busy and effective and showed New Zealanders what he could do.

For the All Blacks, Jimmy Cowan did well behind a pack that did not give him very good service and that made life difficult for the All Black outside backs. I was glad Aaron Mauger was there, as he was a wise head and made good decisions. His passing was excellent and he had a lot to do with both the All Blacks' opening tries. Mils Muliaina was probably the best all-round runner we had on the night.

But I thought the game plan was flawed - there were plenty of times when a good forward drive would have settled things down but the All Blacks kept pushing the passes when ball retention would have been better and often turned it over.

They will be worried about first-five. If not, they should be. McAlister worried me every time he got the ball as I wasn't sure what he was going to do next. His passes were flat and hurried and most of the time, I felt the receivers either weren't sure the pass was coming or did not know what sort of pass to expect.

That can be fixed with time and practice, of course, but it was still more than a bit of a worry.