You could almost reach out and touch the resigned Lansdowne Road air. Ireland had just conceded a record number of points in an international, yet the sense of realism, from within and outside the Irish camp, had been entirely justified. But this is deflating in its own way, for it begs the question: Can we ever compete with these guys - and if so, how?

What happened on Saturday reflected as much, if not more, on two rugby cultures as it did on two rugby teams. The game is evolving like it never has before, both in terms of professionalism off the pitch and style of play on it, yet the gap between the two countries has probably never been wider.

Ireland have a good coach, employed on a long-term basis, and have brought in some good ones (Warren Gatland and Mike Ruddock) at the tier below, as well as having the renowned Willie Anderson at London Irish. Virtually all this team have been part of improved set-ups, domestically or in the English league.

The IRFU are trying to keep pace, yet for every progressive step forward Irish rugby makes, the New Zealanders are probably making two or three. As Ashton has stated, it would be wrong in the extreme to try and copy New Zealand in how we play the game, but we could learn a great deal from how they structure it.

Put it this way: John Hart has been at the forefront of the New Zealand revolution, first at Auckland and now with these incomparable All Blacks. He has performed one of the most difficult tasks in sport by turning a very good team into a great one, carefully modifying here and there and deftly introducing one or two fresh faces (Andrew Blowers being the latest) to keep the thing ticking over. Not always to his players liking, he has a very hands-on style, and his heated interval pep talk had the desired effect. But the All Blacks don't really need a coach per se, more an overseer or manager.

For, how many of their squad (never mind team) need to be coached in any of the basic skills required to their play brand of total 15man rugby, where forwards can sprint, pass and support, and backs can ruck and maul if needs be? Answer none. Does Irish rugby provide the national coach with the same? No way. They are also vastly better conditioned athletes. Quicker, stronger, better, cleverer.

On top of which, New Zealand has a natural pyramid whereby players come through the clubs (nominally), then provinces and finally Super 12 sides before graduating to the All Blacks. Meantime, Irish rugby draws from a limited pool at traditional schools, and then conducts an impossible balancing act between domestic clubs, provinces and English-based players.

From this, the national coach has to somehow dovetail these disparate talents without anything like the same basic level of skills. Ashton had his squad together for six Wednesdays out of eight leading up to the week of the match.

The sessions last Tuesday and Wednesday were regarded as two of the most intense, yet after Saturday's game Hart kept reiterating that where Ireland really fell down was in their inability to cope with the intensity. This, he believes, comes from training.

Understandably, Ashton has sought to maximise every minute of the squad's limited time together, but the net result is that the sessions are comparatively longer and lacking in intensity. It was a point Hart's assistant, Ross Cooper, observed when attending one of the development squad's stints in Whangamata last summer.

The All Blacks players often take sessions themselves. They are unrelentingly intense, generally lasting not much more than an hour - some of the Irish sessions have been two and a half hours. Then again, the All Blacks are a glorified club side as well as being the creme de la creme of the world's foremost rugby nation.

The vast bulk of this squad came together on June 5th for the All Blacks trial three days later, and played eight Tests over the next nine weekends. Two-and-a-half months together! No wonder that they switched back into tour mode so effortlessly last week.

All of these factors came together on Saturday, and a few more besides. So it was that Ireland gave it a good shot. Keith Wood ignored advice from teammates to opt twice for a seven-pointer off a line-out at 3-6 down in the first half. When have we ever seen that before? The drive was excellently controlled. If the Irish pack has the power to do this to the All Blacks, it can do it to anyone.

Wood will forever tell anyone that he outsprinted Jeff Wilson for his second try - thus equalling Vinny Cunningham's achievement against the All Blacks in '92. There was a bit of outmuscling too, but there was also the pacey Conor McGuinness-Kevin Nowlan-Dennis Hickie attack down the blind-side from deep, Kieron Dawson's crucial support as a genuine number seven, and Eric Miller's intuitive chip ahead from recycled ball - the kind of decisionmaking Ashton is striving for.

Credit for that then, and for much else in that opening 28 minutes. Ireland will extract from that what they can and move on to play Canada and then Italy - until when, of necessity, judgement will be reserved.

However, for the next 52 minutes the All Blacks scored 52 unanswered points. Ireland are in good company, for the 36 point second-half haul equalled the Kiwis' first-half tally without reply in their last game against Australia.

New Zealand stopped kicking the ball so much. They began punching up the corridors close-in, in reaction to Ireland's four-up defence. The pick-up-and-go or the pop-and-go was unrelenting. Only when the gamey Irish were finally battered into submission did they spin it wide. Ireland marked Christian Cullen tightly (though he still took three or four men with him and recycled the ball every time) but, predictably, Ireland were skinned alive on the flanks.

The key psychological score was Justin Marshall's, Dawson showing him the inside where there was no cover defence. A killer, for Ireland had played well but trailed 27-15. The dye was cast within minutes of the restart. For 20 minutes these Blacks could have been taken to court by the monopolies commission.

They got the ball, they kept it, they scored. They got the ball, they kept it, they scored. You could almost call it boringly brilliant. One try had 14 phases. Some of them looked embarrassingly easy, such as Glenn Osborne stepping inside Hickie and Nowlan before putting Alama Ieremia in, or Cullen tapping a penalty with his back to a bedraggled Irish defence for Wilson to put Mehrtens over.

Ireland hadn't the physical, explosive strength or power to pressurise New Zealand's unrelenting retention of the ball. Even when they did get it, they gave it back, McGuinness and Hickie each kicking it down Cullen's throat. In truth Ireland might have been better running it, even from their own 22, if only to try and hold onto the thing for a few seconds.

The bookies' 40-point handicap was about right. What was always likely to make it insufficient was enforced Irish substitutions as well as tactical ones. Wood was a loss, as much for his inspirational presence and leadership as anything else.

Ross Nesdale, like David Erskine, made a good impression in the loose but, as with Jim Staples' departure at Murrayfield, Ireland looked leaderless. Two missed throws off their only attacking balls in the third quarter didn't help, for the line-out had gone well up to then, though Tony Spreadbury was a bit cruel on the crooked call, given it was his only one of the game.

The arrival of Kevin Maggs made it seven debutants. Meanwhile, the All Blacks could bring on Josh Kronfeld, to which the Irish pack said a collective "great". Blowers had a big game too, as did Olo Brown with some heavy, pounding yardage up front, and Norm Hewitt.

Marshall redirected the tactics adroitly, and Mehrtens was masterful (the arcing, right-hand touchline conversion into the wind was taking the Micky). Yet the New Zealanders, in truth, didn't really click as they can and will have assuredly kept some of their best moves for England.

In the face of all this, Paul Wallace was probably the pick of the Irish pack, hitting into the Blacks like, well, an All Black. Paddy Johns did some good work close in and at the restarts. O'Kelly made a big tackle count, won the ball thrown to him and covered a lot of ground before the intensity did for him like so many others.

The game passed Eddie Halvey by a bit and you couldn't help but think that a good player would be a better one now if still playing at Saracens. Eric Miller, like so many Englishmen too, is showing signs of post-Lions fatigue and lacked his usual verve, while Dawson had a big tackle count and deserves to stay,

So does Conor McGuinness, criticised in some quarters. True, he scuffed a few kicks and wasn't a threat, but his box kicks were designed to give Ireland a target. He never gave the throw away and his passing, often off static or excavated ruck ball, was sharp - particularly the little inside reverse passes.

For similar reasons, it's hard to condemn the attacking contributions further out. Eric Elwood scuffed a couple too, and his running game began creaking a little under pressure, but his restarts were on the button as was his tackling. Dawson and the midfield defence also pushed up well, and Mark McCall tackled bravely. But Rob Henderson's missed tackle on Mehrtens for Wilson's first try was the low point of an undistinguished day.

The wingers didn't push up in the opposition's faces and were exposed defensively. But there was something about the way Kevin Nowlan rose to the challenge, after unnervingly missing his first two high balls, which had to be admired.

Wholesale changes or mass condemnation would be harsh and probably self-defeating. This one was always cast in stone.