Quade Cooper won't be in a rush to come back to Eden Park after the All Blacks shut him down and smacked him around a bit.
By the final quarter he had the look of a man that wanted to be back in Queensland, the sun on his back, a pina colada in one hand, his iPhone in the other merrily tweeting about just how great he really is.
And how the All Blacks will have enjoyed that, for it was Cooper who most irked them in Hong Kong when he swiped at the All Black captain and spewed some choice invective.
But as much as they will have relished in his pain, there was no outward demonstration that this dish of revenge was slipping down so well.
It was the calm authority of the All Blacks that so impressed. They had some anger swilling around in the system, but it was all carefully channelled into the right areas. The tackling had venom but the defensive effort was as much about organisation as it was thunderous physicality.
The trickery of the Wallaby backline was always evident yet the All Blacks were able to slide and trust each other and scramble when they had to.
It meant the Wallabies ran all sorts of clever lines without escaping and doing the damage they are imminently capable of against lesser sides. Close them down in the backs as the All Blacks did and the Wallabies had to rely on their forwards to nudge some hard yards.
That was the difference between the two. Rugby is no longer driven by the set-piece and unfolds based on the outcome of the collisions at the tackled ball and the All Blacks were dominant.
The big men like Jerome Kaino, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Owen Franks and Brad Thorn didn't play as if there was a soft yolky centre inside their titanium shells. These men don't buckle in the contact.
The Wallabies didn't have that same resistance in their pack. When Ma'a Nonu powered over for the opening try it was straight through the tackle of Rocky Elsom. A few minutes later Elsom was one-on-one with Sitiveni Sivivatu five metres from the line and the Wallaby captain stepped on the brakes.
Kaino on the other hand, buried lock Rob Simmons when the Wallaby lock was in the midst of a promising charge. The ball came loose and Simmons, after an extended lie down, appeared to have made a solemn promise to not carry the ball for the rest of the game.
It was the brutal physicality in isolated incidents that demoralised the Wallabies. That is the challenge in playing the All Blacks - they make it man on man; they back their men to be better; to get the ball away in the contact or to win it back in the tackle.
That's why they were were so lethal last night. Nonu didn't doubt he could produce the leg drive to blast over. Keven Mealamu from similar distance was just as certain that if he charged low and hard the Wallabies wouldn't have the heart or muscle to stop him.
Conrad Smith was just as clinical when he gathered the kick-off after Digby Ioane's try and took off. All he saw was the try-line and trusted Sivivatu to be in support.
If he had wanted to showboat, Smith mightn't have even looked. He could have just thrown the ball left because the All Blacks are at that stage now.
Continuity of selection has allowed them to reach that hallowed place where the rugby just flows. They have put down a huge marker for the World Cup. They have reminded the Wallabies that their ability lags a little way behind their bravado.
New Zealand 30 (M. Nonu, K. Mealamu, S. Sivivatu tries; D. Carter 3 cons, 2 pens, DG) Australia 14 (D. Ioane, R. Elsom tries; Q. Cooper 2 cons)
