After the All Black's had to grind out a tough win against the Irish in atrocious playing conditions, it was great to see them fire a few shots against the English on Saturday night. While the performance was by no means perfect (they pretty much went to sleep in the last twenty minutes...) it's a good confidence booster for the team as they look towards the Tri Nations next month.

England came out firing on all cylinders, and looked to out muscle the All Black forwards - which they actually did for the first ten minutes. But after that initial burst, the momentum began to swing in New Zealand's favour, and they punished some poor English defence and discipline.

The All Black backline was outstanding on attack, and made the English defence look average - at best. Ma'a Nonu was on top of his game against the weak defence, and his distributing skills showed us that he's developing into a very good second-five. In the past, he'd have tried to do everything himself - but he showed us on Saturday that he's working hard on his game. His combination with Conrad Smith is strong, and they are looking like our best midfield pair.

Conrad Smith, Sitivini Sivivatu, Mils Muliaina and Dan Carter all scored for the All Blacks, while Carter had a great night with the boot, kicking 7/7.

Topsy Ojo scored England's two tries, both of which were opportunistic (but well taken, nonetheless...). Speaking of Topsy Ojo - have you voted on his name, yet?

The All Black forwards were not at their best, and really struggled in the lineouts - both Andrew Hore and Kevin Mealamu have some work to do on their throwing skills. The English were far from their best, too, giving away a lot of penalties in the ruck, and Andy Sheridan was sin-binned late in the first half.

Anthony Boric and Stephen Donald both made their debuts off the bench, but didn't really get the time to show us much. Sione Luaki didn't have the best night when he came on - his ball carrying was poor, and he made some pretty basic errors in the short time he was on the field.

The ref was average (again...) and made some bizarre calls against both sides. Why can't the Northern hemisphere ref's call open-style games? We'd rather see Stu Dickinson ref than another Brit - what does that tell you?

It was a good 60 minute performance by the All Blacks, but they'll need to work hard on staying in the game for the full 80 - especially when it comes to Australia and South Africa, who you can't afford to go to sleep against, even for a minute.

If they'd stayed awake for this game...well, the The All Black's could have put fifty points on the English.

In the end, the 37-20 score line was impressive, but we'll be expecting to see a better, complete 80 minute performance in Christchurch on Saturday night.