John Drake: M for Mealamu, Muliaina, monstered

The Ms have it. Mils Muliaina and Keven Mealamu delivered in spades against Australia, having gone in to the opening Tri Nations test under different sorts of pressure.

Mealamu had a very ordinary Super 14 after the Blues captaincy was thrust upon him. There were questions about his form around the field and his lineout throwing.

He certainly received plenty of advice about lineouts and I was among those who believed he needed to get the ball in quicker. Instead, Mealamu said prior to the test match that he believed in taking more time to make sure he got things right. Which he did.

It's almost as if you have an extra back when Mealamu is on form, the way he can jink and swerve about. And at one point he looked like the Aussie league great Arthur Beetson, the way he flung a pass through a tackle.

I've often wondered whether Mealamu would have it at scrum time at test level, but clearly there are no problems there.

As for Muliaina, he is the man to stick with at centre even when Conrad Smith returns, judging by Saturday night's test. With the way Leon MacDonald is playing in Muliaina's previous position at fullback, who would want to change things anyway.

Muliaina was chucked in the deep end, being called on after everyone else had a go, having just adjusted to a change of province and not having started at centre in a test before.

He was fantastic on defence, tackling like crazy in the first 20 minutes. He is also a natural distributor of the ball and actually tries to get players free on the outside. Muliaina also hangs on to the ball when he knows an outside is not in a good position. Smith would have to play exceptionally well to displace him, on what I saw at Jade Stadium.

It wasn't a perfect All Black performance by far, but a very good one and all but Joe Rokocoko were on their game.

Rokocoko is trying so hard, looks fit, but things just aren't going his way. He'll put on a big sidestep and run bang into a tackler - it's just the way it is going for him right now. Maybe he needs a spell back in the NPC, to get his rhythm back.

The All Black scrum monstered Australia where they are really struggling. You could argue that any New Zealand Super 14 prop would make the Australian side.

Australia need to stick with some props and this seems to be John Connolly's recipe.

The scrum is not a problem you can fix overnight, but you can over six months or so.

But I thought Connolly made an error leaving Jeremy Paul on the bench. The inexperienced props needed Paul's guidance, especially when things got tough. Instead they had Tai McIsaac, who ended up getting his ribs split.

A major problem area for the All Blacks was kick-off receptions and it is vital. Australia failed to take advantage of our woes there.

And according to the statistics I saw, Jason Eaton did not make one lineout catch, although the Aussies were clearly following him and Chris Jack around the lineout.

Ali Williams might be a prospect against South Africa and it might also pay to have Anton Oliver on the bench for that match.

As for Australia, the South Africans will have seen this game and will believe they only need to keep smashing away in the forwards.

But Australia might only need 30 per cent of the ball to beat South Africa, even though I was very surprised that their backline struggled to fire any shots in Christchurch, particularly as assistant coach Scott Johnson is supposed to be so innovative. Australia are sure to learn in all departments.

What was impressive about the All Blacks was the way they spread the ball so quickly, whereas Australia were often outnumbered by defenders on their forays.

* John Drake played in the World Cup-winning All Blacks of 1987.