The All Blacks won their quarterfinal against Argentina in Auckland last night but they took a torturous and ugly trip to get there.
The All Blacks ran out 33-10 winners, against a very committed and aggressive Pumas outfit.
Before the game the All Blacks were raging hot favourites.
But they played like a pack of headless chooks at times and were too over eager, and threw too many 50-50 balls.
But, and this is the most important but, they won the game, and more importantly stayed composed when facing adversity.
The clincher came with 14 minutes left when No 8 Kieran Read scored in the corner.
Argentina fullback Martin Rodriguez almost grabbed an intercept but he left a hole in defence into which Read cantered.
Brad Thorn added a try right near the end after some marvellous work on the flank by Cory Jane to ice the cake.
It was relief for the home side which created plenty of chances but just could not finish off.
Too many passes were pushed, balls were knocked on and the Argentinians were successful in slowing the home side's ball down.
The All Blacks went very, very close after a quarter of an hour of the second half as the forwards rumbled it up.
The man in the stand ruled captain Richie McCaw failed to ground the ball when reaching against the goal post.
But Weepu knocked over a penalty instead and the home side was importantly ahead by more than one score.
Best for the home team was halfback Piri Weepu while winger Jane made some electrifying breaks.
Read grew as the game went on while hooker Keven Mealamu was strong with ball in hand.
Argentina nearly scored the first points of the match with first five-eighth Santiago Fernandez just missing with a dropped goal after eight minutes.
The All Blacks were lethargic out of the blocks and stayed in that malaise for the first hour.
They scored the first points of the match after 10 minutes when Weepu stepped up to have a shot at goal much to the pleasure of the big crowd.
He knocked over the penalty from 38m, the first of seven successful kicks on the night..
Read looked to have scored their first try after 15 minutes only to put a toe into touch just as he dived over in the corner.
The home side was making all the play but it could not find a way through a committed Pumas defence.
As is now becoming standard, the Argentinians were not slow in going down injured.
One would not want to be paying the Pumas' bandage bill as half of their players were covered in tape.
Weepu added a second penalty goal after 25 minutes as the All Blacks doubled their lead.
Argentina had the chance to halve the lead almost straight from the kick-off but Felipe Contepomi was astray as the Argentinians' goalkicking woes continued.
But it did not matter as Argentina scored the only try of the first half when blindside flanker Julio Farias Cabello scored.
He burrowed over after big No 8 Leonardo Senatore made a strorming run off the back of a scrum.
It was carried on by the Argentinian backline and Cabello scored from the resulting ruck.
Contepomi added the difficult conversion to give the visiting side a shock lead.
It was all going wrong for the home side with Colin Slade then forced off with a groin injury and Aaron Cruden coming on.
Weepu though restored some order to proceedings with a penalty after 35 minutes when Cruden was lowered in a tackle which was ruled high.
Weepu added another penalty just before halftime and the home side went into the break with an ugly 12-7 lead.
Mils Muliaina, in his 100th match, went off at the break and was replaced by Isaia Toeava.
Pumas centre Marcelo Bosch then knocked over a massive penalty from 50m early in the second half and it was game on.
Prop Ben Franks was a late scratching from the All Black reserve bench with a tummy bug and was replaced by John Afoa.