All Blacks: Performance leaves Henry lost for words

The All Blacks are smarting, but assistant coach Steve Hansen says it's time to 'flush the dunny' and move on. Photo / Getty Images

"What can you say?" Graham Henry asked as he sat down to decipher the All Blacks' latest offering.

Those four words exposed the nation's confusion, the players' uncertainty and the coaches' exasperation after they laboured to a 27-6 victory on Saturday against Italy.

After a week when Rugby Union boss Steve Tew rather rashly criticised Christchurch for not supporting the game, perhaps he can understand their reluctance when he watched the muck they were served up as alleged test fare.

Conditions were as good as you would get for a midyear international at night in the Garden City but the delivery was seriously modest.

It was hard to remember, given the calibre of the 12th-ranked opposition, a worse All Black test performance in the past 20 years.

Joe Rokocoko may not be playing his best but his summary was crisp.

"It was really disgraceful for us as All Blacks to perform like that," he said. "We're expecting crowds to come and watch us and to have a performance like that in the first half was just a disgrace."

What possessed the players to deliver that nonsense is unimaginable. They insisted on trying to run possession out of their 22 and ran into mistakes and an unbending Italian defensive line.

Was it arrogance, defiance or inability? Whatever it was it did not make any sense.

Apparently it had the same effect on Henry at halftime as he delivered a paint-stripping verbal assault on his side, which provoked a marginal improvement.

He and his coaching cohorts, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, did their best to hose down some of the questions about the frailties, inability, lack of direction and dissatisfaction. The team lacked edge, they struggled and had gone down some levels from their play against France.

It was an uneasy question-and-answer session but Hansen may have provided the best summary.

"At the end of the day we can sit here and criticise the players but as [captain] Mils [Muliaina] said they tried as hard as they could on the night. The problem was all that effort wasn't rewarded because we made poor decisions at times and did not show good execution of our skills.

"That is what rugby's about and some of that should be credit to Italy and some of it is our own doing.

"For my mind we just take the win because test wins are to be valued, be positive about the fact we did not get any more injuries - that's another big bonus - and then flush the dunny and move on."

The selectors and players have two options. Dwell on their mistakes and they will still be in the classroom next Tuesday or focus on the good parts and they will all be home quickly.

This Saturday, the panel are due to announce the 30 players for their Tri-Nations squad and the opening Bledisloe Cup test before the group is then trimmed to 26 for two away matches in South Africa. It will be an anxious week for some contenders.

The scrum and lineout was adequate but there was a lack of crunch at the cleanout and ruck.

Brad Thorn again and Isaac Ross showed some class but there was a real lack of sting from the others and every hint of mediocre. But they were way better than the backline.

Smith agreed they were worse than last week when he gave them, at best, a four out of 10. They sat too deep, they ran sideways, they lacked any rhythm.

It was an uneasy return to first five-eighths for Luke McAlister. He struggled with his game but accepted he would have to go through some pain before the benefits of his re-entry to the All Blacks would show.

"Goalkicking. That's about it," he said when asked to detail the positives.

He nailed all five shots at goal but has battled since being plucked from the Junior All Blacks programme to fill in for the injured Richard Kahui and Conrad Smith. On Saturday he was asked to start at first five-eighths because of the injury absence to Stephen Donald and Daniel Carter.

"It's going to take a bit of time," he said. "I'm not really happy with my performance, so I've got a bit of work."

There are three weeks before the All Blacks meet the Wallabies. The wait and the tension will seem eternal.