Richard Loe: Wallabies deserve win against lethargic ABs

Richie McCaw was one of the better performers. Photo / Getty Images

Just as well Graham Henry got warned for speeding last week. After that match in Hong Kong last night, you get the feeling he might have had the book thrown at him if he'd been caught this week.

The Wallabies deserved their win. They missed 14 or 16 points and should have won more easily than they did.

Robbie Deans must have been tearing out his hair watching their mistakes; simple things like tactical kicking and balls hoofed out on the full.

But - and this is a big but - the All Blacks did not play well. They looked rusty, tired, out of sorts for much of the match and you could point a finger at half a dozen of them.

Stephen Donald, I'm sorry to say it again, is not All Black quality. The All Blacks could have escaped with a win if he had kicked that kickable penalty and found his touch with a kick out of defence late in the game.

When Donald was selected for this All Black tour, Henry said he had seen Donald playing in the ITM Cup at a level he'd never seen him reach before.

Now we can see all too well the difference between ITM Cup and All Black rugby. Having said that, in the ITM Cup semifinals we saw four young first five-eighths. I'd say all four of them are better than Donald.

I probably sound like I am giving the man a hard time. I am told he's a great guy and I bet he is. But playing for the All Blacks and playing for your country is an honour and a responsibility and you have to live up to it. I think he proved he can't.

Donald wasn't alone, however. Isaia Toeava was also of dubious quality when he came on; he slipped over and gave away a try. Some will point to the dodgy surface and fair enough but, again, you didn't see Richie McCaw, for example, fall over at crucial times.

Toeava has been a work in progress for five years now. Might be time to try a different work. This one hasn't progressed much.

I thought Tom Donnelly had a strangely inefficient game and we all have a use-by date and I wonder if Mils Muliaina isn't getting close to his.

He looked off the pace more than once, particularly defensively. He combined well with McCaw when they set up that try to Ma'a Nonu but it wasn't enough.

There were good performances from McCaw, Owen Franks, Kieran Read and a committed performance from Jimmy Cowan who almost singlehandedly kept us in the game on defence at times.

So the All Blacks have lost their unbeaten record. As I said last week, I think that record was behind a lot of the conservative selections of this tour party as Henry and the selectors played safe.

I think it was also behind the selection of that team - probably the strongest one they could have fielded.

But they didn't play like it. They looked out of touch and off the boil.

Losing that record might be a good thing. It might focus a few minds on a few things and a few selections.