KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks put their stoic heads on in the wake of their Grand Slam, choosing to treat their achievement with subdued modesty.
No one was getting carried away with their fifth win in five weeks. It was a case of taking pride in the win, acknowledging how hard the task had been and then suggesting it was no more than was expected from an All Black side.
It was deliberately underplayed to reiterate typical All Black values but also because there was a nagging sense of having left something behind.
The stop start nature of the game was frustrating. Halfback Jimmy Cowan said it was tempting to react physically when the English forwards were slapping his hands and slowing the release of the ball.
It was that kind of game and there was an obvious sense of disappointment coming from the All Blacks. They were delighted to have won the test, to have won five on the trot, but the failure to cut loose, to string together a big 80-minute performance was an itch that was going to be hard to scratch.
The one area where there was unanimous satisfaction was the defensive effort. In four tests the All Blacks have not conceded a try. "That is an outstanding statistic," said fullback Mils Muliaina.
It was a tap tackle on No 8 Nick Easter by Muliaina early in the second half that saved a certain try. "I closed my eyes to be honest," he said. "I hoped and I just dived."
He got enough on Easter to bring him down and then his teammates scrambled back and forced a turnover. It was a crucial tackle as if England had scored, they could have built some confidence and momentum.
"We had a fantastic opportunity to give the whole things some real momentum just after halftime, but we didn't take the chance to score and probably lost a little bit of composure after that," said England coach Martin Johnson.
"Toby [Flood] was sent to the sin-bin shortly after that and that made it hard for us to play rugby while he was off the field.
"We did lots of good things. We were able to make a very good attacking side look quite ordinary for a while but we have got to improve our second half performances. I don't know if it is guys not being used to the intensity it is a mental thing.
"We had to stand up as a group and I think we did that. But that is the absolute minimum for us."
