Congratulations Ireland on your win

Congratulations Ireland on your win over my Team.Your win was thoroughly deserved. Enjoy.

Hakwa, that was a gutsy performance and they've been trying for a long time...the game in the states almost didn't count. I'm sort of glad for the Irish on the one hand...an amazing achievement for them and their fans, but the Irish stopped being my favourite NH team a while ago...and for a reason. ...all that said, they were hungry last night.

Hakwa 

You were very generous in your congratulations an I join you in that.

However, I was not happy wat some of the AB players produced in the match and that worries me a lot.   I noticed too that for the first year in a decade the AB's did not end the year as the number 1 ranked team in the world. 

Unless there is a massive upset next Saturday - the situation will not change.   I an particularly unhappy on what Read himself produced and after a heavy early tackle Retallick also made some mistakes, while Whitelock seems on AWOL most of the game.

The backline seemed to misfire as well and maybe Crotty should asap be replaced by Laumape.    I also think Ben Smith should be replaced by Ben Lam or better still George Bridge.    

Mike thanks for your concerns. Look, the Irish deserved their win.

For our guys, it has been a long season on the road. Most of them have families now with young kids that miss their dads and they probably miss their kids too. We are only humans after all. To ask them to get up and play Ireland after England was probably a bridge too far. Look, after all the mistakes during the Test, they were at the right end of the field at the right time namely the last few minutes - same as the Test against you guys in Wellington.

I would not change anything - I support Hansen and co 100%. They know what they are doing.

Right now the boys need to rest, recuperate and put their feet up and heal.