There's no business like show business

Today's match was, on the face of it, all about Drew Mitchell, Lote Tuquiri and Joe Rokocoko. The three enjoyed much more space on attack than when anyone had played the Springboks (except for the Sydney Mandela Challenge match), and revelled in it.

Drew Mitchell made the first ten minutes Australia's and looked lethal whenever he got the ball - never more so than when he beat Dan Carter and went on to score. While the tide then turned and the All Blacks came back, Mitchell continued to look like the real deal throughout. Lote Tuquiri had only three chances during the match but ran through tackles on each occassion (five on one particular run).

Mitchell also ran the lines and channels I mentioned last week when I said I wished Montgomery would break through the close-in channels more. I hope he took some notes.

But the All Blacks came back from thirteen points to nil down through a calm self belief, the awesome efforts of their loose trio - and the brilliance of Joe Rokocoko.

For all the rubbishing in the press, Tana Umaga played a massive calming influence in the All Blacks backline. Not only is captainship tested in coming back from early deficits, but Umaga seemed to reorganise the All Black defence and make some big hits to lead from the front.

But I mentioned that this was "on the face of it" show business. The real story was about a set of forwards that made the Australian life miserable. Chris Jack was imperious in the lineout and showed just how good Matfield and Botha were for the Boks against the All Blacks last week. The entire New Zealand pack made the Australians' lives miserable and exposed the injury ravaged Ozzies lack of depth up front. But the All Black loose trio were fantastic and Soialo, Collins and McCaw put in massive hits, cleaned out the rucks and generally made sure the Australians looked increasingly gun-shy as the match went on. Again, this showed just how well the Bok loose trio played last week.

For the Wallabies, big questions will be asked of their depth as their injury list grew. Chris Whittaker eventually ended up as flyhalf as first Matt Gitteau and then Elton Flatley went off. It must be said that Elton Flatley looked fantastic on attack in the inside channel. He ran fanstatic lines and his distribution was just beautiful.

Gregan looked better today than he has looked against the Boks, but the knives will be out for the Ozzie captain and his coach.

On the other hand, Brendan Cannon looked piss-poor for the Wallabies when he replaced Jeremy Paul. He butchered opportunities as he took passes (or more accurately didn't) in the Wallaby line, made the Australian lineout problems worse and generally looked unhappy to be on the field. He emphasises the problem the Australians have in putting together a team for Perth next week.

My man of the match? Joe Rokocoko made it look easy for the All Blacks in the end. On counter attck or from latter phase rugby, Rokocoko can exploit the smallest amounts of space. He helped the All Blacks remember their strength - a back three that can punish the smallest mistakes. Hopefully he will help the Boks remember that the key to beating the New Zealanders is cherishing possession, minimising turnovers and counter attacking opportunities and closing down space.

The New Zealanders beat the Wallabies playing Super-12 rugby - 22 tackles were missed by the two sides in the first thirty minutes. You have to wonder how this will stand up to the classic test rugby style the Boks have adopted.

Today's result holds mixed news for the Boks. It gives New Zealand an away win and requires the Boks to win at least one of their away matches. The Boks will have to look for bonus points in both away matches to be assured of retaining their Tri-Nations crown. The good news is that the Boks confidence of winning away against the Wallabies must have leapt sky-high. They will in fact have to guard against overconfidence. Having dominated the All Blacks in Cape Town, the Boks will also be confident of beating the New Zealanders in Dunedin. They have not had too many matches in the land of the Silver Fern where that has been the case.