KEY POINTS:
Graham Henry either did well to hide his exasperation, or he has become far more lenient in his coaching dotage.
When the All Black coach started his match summary of the 40-0 win over Scotland B with "we are pretty happy really" it had to be the former.
Henry was bluffing with the hand his side dealt out yesterday at Murrayfield.
There were strong moments. The scrum was omnipotent against an unseasoned rival frontrow, there was some bruising defence which gave the All Blacks their first shutout in World Cup history and the lineout was disciplined. But it was the handling mistakes and poor decisions on attack which marred the All Blacks' third World Cup match.
It was a flashback to the midyear Tri-Nations foibles, like the 15 handling errors in the McG defeat against the Wallabies, then the 20 in the following test against a second-string Springbok side in Christchurch.
At Murrayfield the All Blacks repeated that grisly 20 handling mistakes statistic and there were also too many forward passes, or those not given when they should have been.
The lights were on at the home of Scottish rugby but few All Blacks were there. Six tries were scored but according to Henry they "blew a few through skill level so that was a wee bit disappointing".
That few might have been another half dozen. In what may be this team's final matchplay before their Cardiff quarter-final, most players were guilty of casual ball retention or handling.
Wing Doug Howlett set a new 48 try-high mark for the All Blacks, surpassing Christian Cullen's mark when he flashed in for two touchdowns, and Nick Evans, Andrew Hore, Reuben Thorne, Ali Williams and Richie McCaw were the most accurate competitors.
The scrum was a grinding mass of destruction but referee Marius Jonker again seemed to be lenient on the troubled Scots formation as he was with the Wallabies in Melbourne.
But the overall impression was all about a shoddy dress-rehearsal for a Cardiff quarter-final, probably against France. And the injury exit of fullback Leon MacDonald with a hip problem, combined with the hamstring concern about Mils Muliaina, was an early downer.
The message all week from the All Blacks had been about lifting their standards, raising the momentum for the run to the playoffs, being more clinical. Scotland sent out their B-graders with coach Frank Hadden opting to rest his top troops for the must-win final game against Italy.
He did the tournament and the game no favours, it was a cynical move but one the poor format encourages.
Hadden will be judged on what happens next week, he took the advice of many rugby sages in Scotland and the consensus was to protect his strongest side from the All Blacks.
The verdict on Henry will be made later but he must be sifting through his tactics and re-assessing the merits of some players after the latest shoddy production.
By their very high standards, the All Blacks lost their way.
None more so than Sitiveni Sivivatu from the third minute when he dropped a perfect Daniel Carter crosskick to the last play of the game when he lost the ball in a tackle. It was a handy game for Joe Rokocoko to miss.
The midfield had little cohesion, Luke McAlister was out of sorts for the second time in this tournament. He wasted one try when he dummied instead of passing to an unmarked Howlett and was tackled, he offered loopy passes or one that went to no one.
The All Blacks do create chances with their continuity but in the playoffs those openings may be rare and cannot be frittered away. Sides with far more attacking potency than Scotland yesterday will also punish that recklessness.
The preference for a McAlister-Smith pairing is coming under some real threat but does the success of an alternate combination this week against Romania translate into a quarter-final remedy?
Before the game Henry suggested perhaps 75 per cent of those who played yesterday were in his best playoff XV. It was a cagey approach, meant to offer hope to the rest of the squad. The XV who started yesterday reinforced that prospect.
Even the masterful Carter could manage only a steady game and landed just four of nine kicks. He looked rusty and his plea to be involved against Romania may be necessary.
No 8 Rodney So'oialo had one of his Rustenburg matches, his handling would not behave, Chris Masoe was a mix of brutal and careless in a strong hitout while Thorne worked the middle of the park relentlessly.
As the All Blacks took their direct charter flight back to their Aix en Provence base in the south of France after the match there should have been a fair bit of introspection.
Getting anyone to concede they might revise the mid-campaign team leave would be as likely as MacDonald being fit for Romania. They have trained hard for three weeks and may have left some of their sting on the practice field.
But the inability of the team to fire after a fortnight's rest and the feeling the bulk will be saved for the quarter-final in another two weeks, brings up the question about the balance between matchplay and rust.
