All Black prop Ben Franks was dead right.
The burly prop said after the game it was an even contest, despite the Irish having a man sent off in the 15th minute and being short-handed for the rest of the game.
Franks said part of the game was to keep your discipline.
Jamie Heaslip didn't and the Irish were penalised.
That is the way rugby is and should be.
If you do something utterly stupid then the penalty should be harsh.
Any talk of how referee Wayne Barnes ruined the game by sending him off is wide of the mark.
If no-one is sent-off for doing something as dumb as Heaslip did then where will it end ?Players getting poleaxed? Legs broken ? Heads taken off ?One does not want to go the rugby league way.
Offenders go on report - despite performing blatant indiscretions - then head to a judiciary which has undue pressure put on it.
One only has to look across the ditch to see what a shambles a judicial system can become.
The referee - even our good old friend Wayne Barnes - is the sole judge on the field and, wanting to bring an entertaining game to the masses, is not part of his job description.
He saw Heaslip do a dumb thing and punished him.
But really, if Heaslip had stayed on the field after kneeing All Black skipper Richie McCaw in the head, the result would have probably not have been much different.
The All Blacks are usually slow out of the blocks in the first test of the season but there was none of that on a fine New Plymouth night.
The passes stuck, the balls went when they wanted, and the line was broken, although 23 missed tackles from the Irish did help the cause.
The home side talked of the few extra days of preparation in Auckland being a big help and they definitely did look a lot better than normal.
New boy Israel Dagg continued his form for the Highlanders, and excelled at the next level.
He ran hard at the line, pushed the ball when needed and did everything asked of him - admittedly not much on defence.
But as a warm-up test to play against someone like the Springboks it was like going for a 10m run to prepare for a marathon.
No 8 Kieran Read was dependable and never shirked while Jimmy Cowan turned up at the right place and the right time again.
But perhaps the most pleasing effort was from Dan Carter, who looked back to his best.
A firing Carter is what the All Blacks need.
The Irish were woeful at times, devoid of ideas and the tank running on empty.
Ronan O'Gara may be able to kick goals, but if he was a New Zealander he would have been sent to the pasture paddock years ago.
Once again, the southern hemisphere teams have shown there appears to be light years between them and the lads from the north.
What is it about players from the northern hemisphere and their inability to bring any flair to their game?
Is it the boggy grounds they play on?
Or the coaching which just encourages the grind and suck it up style which brings results against similar teams but little else?
Maybe it is the colonial ancestry in New Zealand and Australia which sort of says we are going to play it fast and spin it wide against the old masters from the north.
Whatever it is, the quickness of the game from the All Blacks was way too much for the Irish and, if they continue that form next week at Carisbrook, it could be a long night for the Welsh.
Question: Have we gone from one extreme to another?
Last year there were turnovers at will at the ruck and maul.
On Saturday night there was not one ruck and maul turnover.
We all want to see continuity but isn't it supposed to be a game where there is a contest for possession.
And five scrums in the whole game.
Do we even need Carl Hayman?
