What the hell happened on Saturday night?

It's hard to believe that we were watching the All Blacks - we haven't seen them play that poorly in a long time.

Our effort in the second half was below average, and the Wallabies took full advantage of our poor ball handling, and made us pay.

It's hard to think that we went toe-to-toe with South Africa in two fantastic Test matches, only to pull out one of our worst efforts ever.

Now, don't get us wrong - we can handle losing if we put in a solid effort, like in Dunedin. But to lose in the fashion that we did on Saturday...

It's tough to take.

There was no cohesion amongst the players, which made it very hard to get any forward momentum going. And any time we did get going, our handling let us down.

It's hard not to think that, once again, the ref has cost us big time. How the hell the ref, and the two assistant refs, missed that penalty try...we'll never know. And let's be honest - that was the point in the game when the momentum swung.

Sivivatu would have scored, and Peter Hynes should have been sent to the bin. We're not saying we would have won from that point, but it would have given us a 26-17 lead, and put the pressure squarely on the Wallabies.

But we didn't score, and things went down hill from there - and there's no excuse for our performance in the last thirty minutes.

So, where to from here for the All Blacks?

We don't think it's a case of making a heap of changes - the players that were out there have the skills to beat any side in the world. We think it's just a case of going back and working on the basics at training - learning how to hold onto the ball would be a good start...

The one thing they do need to start doing is kicking deep, rather than the midfield kicks they seem to do all the time. All that does is give the opposition the ball in prime field position. They also need to start putting faith in their lineout abilities, and kick the ball out a bit more - especially down in the opposition's territory. Other teams do it to us, and it puts us under a lot of pressure.

Unfortunately, we think it's time for Sione Luaki to be dropped. He lost us possession on numerous occasions, and while he wasn't the only one, there was only one time when he didn't cough it up (out of about 8-9 carries) - not good enough. On his day he can be a brutal runner, but those games are far too rear - and at Test match level you need to be on song every time.

Now that Chris Masoe is heading offshore, Liam Messam would seem to be the best candidate. At least, we think so...

Injuries to Ellis (ribs) and Cowan (knee and broken nose), has meant Piri Weepu has been rushed into the All Blacks camp, and will be in contention if either one pulls out. The way Ellis was hobbling on the field, it's hard to see him playing on Saturday, but we do give him credit for going back out there with his rib injury - it shows the guy's got heart.

Auckland's Taniela Moa will also train with the squad this week.

Hore suffered a hip injury, and while it's not considered serious at this point, Hikawera Elliot has been brought in as cover.

New Zealand's depth is really being tested now...

Full credit to the Wallabies on their performance on Saturday (how cliche is that?) - they outplayed the All Blacks and thoroughly deserve their win. Boy, that's tough to say. But they really did - they took full advantage of our errors, and punished us.

Suddenly, we feel a little nervous about playing them again...

Hurry back, Richie.