ON RUGBY:It's still hard to fathom how the All Blacks bossed the collisions set against the evens of last June in Wellington

AND NOW then for something both eminently more familiar and more important. Next Saturday's latest renewal of hostilities with Argentina may not carry with it a shot at immortality but it is still more significant than that, and likewise the upcoming Six Nations will also see Ireland competing with teams more in their realm. For if Canada was surreal and almost irrelevant, then the All Blacks was the polar opposite. As barometers of both Ireland's well-being and selections, in a curious way it's hard to gauge how pertinent either game was.

Men against boys is a popular phrase to describe one-sided victories, but this couldn't apply last Saturday at Croke Park. At 33, the remarkably durable Brad Thorn was the only Thirtysomething in the All Blacks' match-day squad. Every other player in their starting line-up is 25 to 29; the ideal age for the kind of physicality and intensity they bring to the collision areas, which was from where their supremacy emanated.

Ireland, by contrast, had six Thirtysomethings in their starting XV, along with a couple of young tyros and at the outset of their international campaign could scarcely live with the power and tempo set by the All Blacks from virtually the first whistle.

Quite why the All Blacks bossed the collisions remains a little puzzling when set against the events of last June in Wellington. Perhaps the Ireland players have trained differently, or there's been less of an emphasis on power conditioning as opposed to stamina, or maybe the build-up had been a touch too intense and they came into the game a little overdone. Maybe they simply weren't as match-hardened.

The last three match-ups had been in the formative stages of the All Blacks' season, and each one had been competitive, two-score games. But since the All Blacks' 21-11 win in Wellington last June, their first Test of the season, they have played another 11 matches. Ireland, by contrast, had played just one Test, and that against Canada.

Helped by their mid-season break, the All Blacks somehow always arrive in the Northern Hemisphere on their end-of-season tours in seemingly ridiculous rude health and fresh, and it will be interesting to see if they duly go on to emulate their Grand Slam tour of '05.

That said, Wales are a year further down the track under their current regime and have inestimably more confidence from their results in that time. Hard though it might be to credit on their performance against Australia, England, too, with their greater physicality compared to Ireland, often trouble New Zealand at Twickenham.

Even so, one expects the All Blacks will win both games, and, for Ireland's sake, one sincerely hopes they will, for that would make the glaring gulf in class here a tad more bearable. Considering that since the World Cup just over a year ago they have seen Jerry Collins, Nick Evans, Carl Hayman, Doug Howlett, Chris Jack, Byron Kelleher, Chris Masoe, Aaron Mauger, Luke McAlister and Greg Somerville all take up contracts in Europe, while also losing Leon MacDonald, Anton Oliver and Reuben Thorne, their recovery since losing two of their first three Tri Nations games speaks volumes for the All Blacks' winning culture and their coaching.

They ruthlessly exploited Paul O'Connell's leg injury and from the off targeted Ronan O'Gara by running down his channel, putting his kicking game under intense pressure and keeping their wingers deep to limit his kicking game. Time was when stopping Brian O'Driscoll was the key to stopping Ireland. Now, it seems, the key is stopping O'Gara. In a way it's a compliment to him and the standards he has set in playing so well for so long.

Maybe the ensuing frustration was what prompted him to try a chip from inside his own 22, and why O'Driscoll tried a tap penalty and a chip in the build-up to the penalty try. When events were unfolding before them like they were last Saturday, the big players can sometimes feel an extra obligation to try something special.

Ireland could have tried keeping the ball in hand more, or using O'Driscoll as a kicking outlet, but such was the pressure being exerted on Ireland both physically and mentally when playing the All Blacks, that there's no guarantee it would have had any more success.

Likewise, it probably wouldn't have mattered what selection Declan Kidney and co came up with last week, but this week it might do. The gamble on going into the game without specialist secondrow cover undoubtedly backfired.

It may have been part of the reason why an incapacitated O'Connell remained on the field for 15 minutes longer than he clearly should have, and in which time the All Blacks scored two tries.

Playing Stephen Ferris in the secondrow takes probably too much out of his game and his legs for him to have the kind of impact he normally would have from the backrow. Ferris's physicality might, in hindsight, have been more useful against the All Blacks but there's still an argument for having Alan Quinlan against the Pumas given it's likely to be a messy, niggly, spoiling game.

Likewise, Shane Horgan's physicality might have come in useful against the All Blacks but given we know Juan Hernandez and co will repeatedly pepper the Ireland back three, this upcoming fixture might be more suitable for an unchanged back three.

There is an argument for moving Rob Kearney to fullback or recalling Geordan Murphy, for although aerial ping-pong will undoubtedly rule at Croke Park next Saturday, there's still a case for playing more attack-minded and potent players so as to actually go and win matches by scoring points.

The doubts about O'Connell and Best compounds the cloud and impending disciplinary hearing hanging over Quinlan. Apparently, the Ireland management did not ask the citing commissioner to look at any incidents, such as Tony Woodcock's punch at Best, whereas the All Blacks' management did ask him to look at the incident when Quinlan used his boot as Rodney So'oialo lay on the wrong side.

In any event, this complicates an already highly pressurised situation for the wounded management and players alike. They certainly could have done without it.