Hugh McGahan: No disgrace as error-ridden Kiwis are overrun

On Friday night it felt as though the whole of New Zealand fell to earth with an almighty thud. The much-anticipated but over-hyped game lived up to expectation from a physical contact point of view but emotion was evident throughout the 80 minutes.

Emotion didn't lose us the game but it blinded us to what we needed to concentrate on - basic play and the limiting of errors. Emotion is motivation but it is not what will win games, especially test matches. Using your head and playing smart was the key and we failed to overcome the emotion factor.

I am sure Brian McClennan was disappointed, as every Kiwi supporter was, when the committed Ruben Wiki withdrew with injury. Ruben's experience was sorely missed in the last 20 minutes of the game when the Australians turned up the heat and errors crept in.

These errors, coupled with a few glaring mistakes by the referee, compounded the frustration. The loss of Wiki, and then Thomas Leuluai not long into the second half, proved too much for Benji Marshall to cope with. The Kiwi half was left to try and resurrect something on his own as the rot started to settle in during a mistake-ridden final quarter.

The scoreline certainly did not reflect the true intensity and closeness of the 80 minutes, with rugged defence and determined running by both sides. In the end, the Australians and their relentless firepower showed through as Andrew Johns and Darren Lockyer started to find holes in the tiring Kiwi defence, as well as Willie Mason, Ben Kennedy, Mark Gasnier and Danny Buderus taking advantage of quick play-the-balls to rampage through the ever-retreating Kiwi line.

New Zealand lacked another playmaker in the halves to place them into good attacking positions, either by the constant supply of eager runners or tactical kicks to jam the Australians behind their own goal line. Goalkicking is an asset we must seriously look at for the future if we want to give ourselves a serious chance of beating Australia.

To be brutally honest, New Zealand was going to need a Herculean effort to hold out Australia. They were always going to test our defence over 80 minutes - we fell short but without disgrace.

At times the defence was brutal, as Karmichael Hunt found out when Frank Pritchard came in with the hit of the night. Legal but brutal is the best description I could give that tackle and the Australian players must have agreed as they did not rush in to protest Pritchard's tackle. Yes, Pritchard did hit his head, which will be looked at by the judiciary, but as the referee stated, the player was heading down as he was coming into the contact zone.

New Zealand will now have to look at the next game against the English in a few weeks time and try to rectify their defence, particularly the problem of rushing in off the line to try and take out the ball carrier. Jake Webster did this on a number of occasions and was caught short most of the time. This is a pet hate of mine in defence and something that will need to be addressed prior to taking on the Poms.