The first part of this article deals with the All Blacks joy and satisfaction. The second part asks the question did we really take this serious.

So, this is what the best part of a year seething, brooding and plotting can do. Inspire the All Blacks to a performance that lights a fuse under not just their Tri-Nations, but World Cup ambitions.

They’re back, that’s for sure and suddenly the rugby world is back on its axis again.

Richie McCaw and his men exacted a fair dollop of revenge for last year’s clean sweep suffered at the hands of the Springboks when they trounced their bitter rivals 32-12 in Auckland last night to make the perfect start to this year’s Tri-Nations.

And later the All Blacks were unanimous about one thing regarding their Bok-busting performance on Eden Park – it had been nearly a year in the brewing.

Ever since they trudged off Waikato Stadium last September, pipped 32-29 by South Africa’s finest, this had been the primary target. There was honour, pride and ambition to salvage, and damnit if it wasn’t a hell of a wait for it.

“The key thing about what was behind this performance was 3-zip last year,” forwards coach Steve Hansen said. “A lot of people have been waiting to play this test match, a lot of work went into it, and a lot of thought went into it from the players.

“We’ve come out on top. But we’ve got to do it again next week and that’s the exciting thing. We don’t have to wait 12 months. We only have to wait seven days to see if we can repeat it.

McCaw, who led a splendid forward performance from the black pack, admitted the result had been deeply satisfying.

The Springboks are paying the prize.

We mixed and change the Springbok team so many times this year there was no way we could expect to fire on all cylinders. Yes that is the prize we paid because our coach decided he needs 40 plus Springboks all equal. What was the point of bringing in players from Europe? Did Graham Henry deviate from his player policies?

The easy way out is to blame Bakkies Botha. Yes we paid dearly for his absence on the field but no one in the Springbok team can use his head but as a excuse, the effect of that brain fart only comes into play now. We came back well into the game in the second half and the near try could have swung the whole game. But my question is , were we playing to our full potential as a well drilled team.

I would say no, not disregarding the All Blacks constant pressure. I would not change much in the team , this is nearly our best team. The absence of Fourie du Preez and Heinrich Brussouw was clearly seen. They are 2 outstanding players but we had enough time to find suitable replacements. In the eyes of Peter de Villiers he found Ricky January as the right replacement for Fourie du Preez. Although Ricky did fairly good on Saturday Peter missed the whole trick in his experiments by not trying Ruan Pienaar.

What can happen now is that Ruan Pienaar gets his chance Saturday, the poor player will be set up for failure. The All Black train is on a runaway track and it will need a brilliant Springbok team in full cry to stop them. For a Ruan Pienaar to come in now borders on unfair treatment. This all could be avoided if we game our number 1 team a fair buildup towards the Tri-Nations championship.

It is funny how coaches repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Jake White gave test wins away, luckily he had a open path to win the World Cup after the other main contenders, the All Blacks and the Wallabies lost in earlier rounds. Jake though had his team picked in his mind about two years before the World Cup.

Graham Henry in 2007 had this idea that he had two equal teams, all at the same level. just like Peter de Villiers he chopped and changed his team constantly, rested players during the early round and ended up losing with a off form team against France. The All Blacks lost because the ref missed a forward pass. No they should have beaten France with ease but they played like the Springboks yesterday. No cohesion , not real tread.

What will the Springbok coach do next. He might drop up to 5 players for the next game. What message would that send out? Panic, still building his World Cup team? The fact is the All Blacks showed improvement in every game so far this year and if that tendency continues we will get another hiding on Saturday.  We on the other hand must at all cost play the same team accept for Bakkies Botha.

Some commentators blamed our defense, the fact is some great tackles were made but the collective effort was lacking because we did not play enough game together.