By All Black scrum-half Justin Marshall

We knew we were in for a tough fight against Ireland - and we were right.

They always start very well and they played with passion and commitment for the entire 80 minutes.

We struggled to get hold of the ball in the opening quarter and continued in the same vein throughout the match.

In hindsight, we should have kicked more because the conditions were certainly not perfect for throwing the ball around.

It wasn't our best performance but we're trying to create a brand of rugby that we believe will be difficult to stop.

The rotational policy adopted by John Mitchell does mean that we haven't got a settled side at the moment, but that's no excuse.

We were unhappy with the number of times we spilled the ball in contact and handed possession back to Ireland.

That said, the Irish were up pretty quickly - some might say too quickly - but we can't afford to turn over the ball as much as we did.

That gave the stats a lop-sided look, and we'll be hoping to make amends next Saturday.

After the match we had a chat about the way the backs played. The axis between Andrew Mehrtens and Aaron Mauger didn't work too well, but they've both played so well for the Crusaders we're not too worried at the moment.

It's important not to read too much into who is and out of the squad for the second Test.

Although Tana Umaga is out, he'll be playing for the Barbarians against New Zealand Maori on Friday - a game that will be as closely monitored as the Test.

It's not necessarily been a great weekend for the southern hemisphere teams.

South Africa struggled against a weakened Wales team, we certainly didn't hit our peak and Australia leaked points against the Maori.

But don't read too much into these games. It's early in the season and some players are still finding their feet.

But we're happy with the team we've got and if we can retain possession we look as if we can cause some damage going forward.

Of course, there's more than rugby going on at the moment - and the All Blacks, believe it or not, are as involved as anyone in the football World Cup.

We've got a bit of a sweepstake going amongst the boys. I've drawn Italy so I'll be cheering them on this week.

Thankfully, the first draw was declared null and void because I pulled out France!

I think the money could be going to Caleb Ralph - he's got Brazil, though after Senegal's win over Sweden Leon MacDonald will be hoping he's in the money too!