Richard Loe: Good but not great is the fairest assessment

If I was marking the All Black tour out of 10, I'd give them a 7. Some will be a bit surprised about that, especially considering the euphoria after that test against France.

But I said at the beginning of the tour that the All Blacks had to do three things - win, dominate and finish teams off.

They did the first two consistently but not the third and it was only against France that they really turned the screw.

As predicted, the French got all overawed. They came out to play that match thinking they were going to win; and win it by playing attacking rugby.

When it didn't work, they turned turtle. If they were playing the All Blacks next week, I'd bet you'd not see them play so positively.

So the All Blacks now have to aim for consistency in achieving the sort of result they did against France. That's a bit harder - but they have taken some big strides since the beginning of the season.

They have focused on the basics and problems like the lineout have been fixed - just as we all said they could be.

That brings me to Tom Donnelly - one of the best players of the tour, I'd suggest.

He showed up well for most of this tour and particularly against France. Lock is one of the few areas where the All Blacks have no worries and plenty to choose from now. Donnelly did so well that I am bound to say: Isaac who? And that's a biggie - I was one of those people who insisted that Isaac Ross should have gone on this tour.

But, I have to say, Ross could not have played against the French as Donnelly did.

He was efficient in the lineouts, he was physical and unbending in the face of the French - his maturity and experience showing - and he did a lot of grunt work.

When you think we still have Ali Williams, Ross and possibly Chris Jack to come back in the side, you can see we have depth in the second row.

The scrum still has work to do but it is heading in the right direction and this was a big tour for Neemia Tialata.

He came through it well, with reputation and confidence enhanced, and that could be valuable for the All Blacks if anything were to prevent Carl Hayman from turning out in 2011.

The wingers and fullbacks went well and you'd also have to congratulate the selectors on dropping Joe Rokocoko.

To me, that had the effect of lighting a fire under Sitiveni Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina and both responded well.

But there's still plenty of weeds to be pulled from the All Black garden:Little progress has been made in developing back-ups for Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.

I was a bit surprised that Richie started this morning's match with Tanerau Latimer on the bench - though it's likely that the deal that surrounded this match meant the All Blacks had to play one of Carter or McCaw to help hype the thing up.

However, that doesn't explain why Stephen Donald started at first five and Delany was on the bench - he's had virtually no chance to impress and we know what Donald has to offer. Or not.

The halfbacks were pretty mediocre, apart from Jimmy Cowan's game against France.

They sorted out a few who may not be invited back again. It was a good comeback from Liam Messam but it may be that, if the squad was being chosen again, he wouldn't get a spot.

The same could be said of Rodney So'oialo and maybe Wyatt Crockett. This morning's match against the Barbarians was big for their continued prospects.

The NZRU earn a little slap for not negotiating midweek games for the All Blacks, as the Springboks and Wallabies enjoyed.

Midweek games would have allowed them to field their second-string and emerging players and assess them better; allow them to develop combinations. Either bad planning or insufficient persuasion.

However, overall, the All Blacks improved from the Hong Kong test on - with the exception of the test against Italy.

That just wasn't good enough.