Sean Fitzpatrick: We shouldn't count too many chickens, but...

Ma'a Nonu of the All Blacks tramples over Jannie Du Plessis of the Springboks. Photo / Getty Images

Let's not get too carried away but ... superb, All Blacks.

Over here in Britain, I am now getting all sorts of smart-alecks saying to me: 'Oh yeah, All Blacks peak again at the wrong time ...', so let's keep a sense of proportion. It wasn't the World Cup final but it was good; very good.

The thing that most impressed was the fact that we hardly heard the names Carter and McCaw mentioned all night. In the first three test matches of the season, they were in the spotlight the whole time, leading the team.

They played well, of course, but this time, you had the Kieran Reads, the Mils Muliainas, the Keven Mealamus, the Tom Donnellys all playing significant roles - and making decisions; good decisions.

That's the thing. Whenever there has been a good All Black team, there have been good decision-makers from 1 to 15. We saw something of that last night.

Again, let's not get too ahead of ourselves as I thought the Boks looked tired. John Smit looked tired, so did Pierre Spies - and the Bakkies Botha incidents didn't do them any good. That headbutt was replayed over and over on the big screen and unsettled them, as did his yellow card.

But, having said all that, the All Blacks have realised they had to do the work. They had analysed the Boks well and knew they had to deal with them physically and they had worked very hard on their own game; at scrum, lineout and with the counter-attacking game plan.

It worked to the extent that we beat them at scrum and lineout - great stuff, considering they have been our bogey team at the set piece in recent times.

The Boks just didn't fire. Gurthro Steenkamp didn't scrum well and Owen Franks was all over him and all over the field as well, a good illustration of the difference last night.

The Boks are missing Fourie du Preez at halfback - the first try came from a poor Ricky Januarie kick and du Preez's kicking is highly accurate.

Donnelly was outstanding and gives them a harder edge at the lineout and Read had a big game too.

You couldn't take it away from a fine All Black performance and, for me, I'd just give it to Mils Muliaina as man of the match.

The first three tests of this season have allowed Graham Henry to get his side settled and he's done well bringing in players like Donnelly and Ma'a Nonu even though they have had little rugby.

We saw that the All Blacks got tremendously quick ball; recycling it very fast. We saw in the Super 14 that the sides who recycle ball quickly can now get over the advantage line and behind the defensive line - and that's what the All Blacks did last night.

Again, the Boks will come out snorting and streaming next Saturday so we shouldn't count too many chickens.

But ... superb, All Blacks, superb.