Analysis: This was a better Lions performance but at the moment we appear to be watching a pretty special All Blacks team, and perhaps we hadn't appreciated how special it is until now, says Warren Gatland.

But that question will not be answered until the Tri-Nations. If the All Blacks win the Tri-Nations then that will confirm they are the best team in the world, but if they don't win it, that will raise even bigger questions about the Lions' performances out here.

The Lions came out and did what we expected. Their set-pieces were better. But they came up against a better team and a number 10, Daniel Carter, who probably gave the best performance by any outhalf at any level that I've ever seen.

He may even be the best outhalf I've ever seen. For a man who's not that big, he's incredibly quick and strong, and like all quality players he seems to have more time on the ball. Given he's only 23, it's all a little bit scary.

I personally thought the two packs cancelled each other out but the major difference was the two backlines. The Lions, apart from Gareth Thomas, Jonny Wilkinson and to some extent Dwayne Peel in the first 10 minutes, really didn't show anything. They were very, very poor as a backline.

I have to be honest - I was disappointed with Paul O'Connell. If I was his coach I'd take him aside and help him appreciate that he should never have given away that penalty under the All Blacks' posts after Wilkinson's penalty had hit the upright - so that in four or five years' time he'll be able to look back and admit it was absolutely stupid and pass on this knowledge to a younger player. It didn't really affect the result in the end but it could have done on another day.

In terms of handling, O'Connell was probably the worst Lions forward, but maybe this was not the worst thing that could have happened to him. It may make him a better player, and I say this because I believe Paul has an awful lot to offer the game.

Right at the end of the game I noticed Tana Umaga mouthing something at Lions players. It was clear the whole O'Driscoll issue merely served to back the All Blacks into a corner. Maybe he should have apologised, but by Wednesday they'd decided they weren't going to and then you even had Eddie O'Sullivan making comments on Thursday.

Enough was enough. From my experience of being an All Black that's the last thing you do. The Lions coaches made a big mistake in backing Alastair Campbell's campaign. They pushed them too far.

When did Clive Woodward ever apologise for Danny Grewcock's various misdemeanours, or the player himself, right up to last week's one when he bit Keven Mealamu?

Personally I found it difficult to read the Sunday papers yesterday, because all of them have had a go at the Lions and Northern Hemisphere rugby, and in the current climate no criticism of the Super 12 can be tolerated. I can appreciate why Graham Henry led the debate on this by saying Super 12 provided the climate that allowed the skills these All Blacks displayed in Wellington on Saturday to flourish.

He took a lot of flak during and after the last Lions tour, but from a New Zealand point of view Graham's stint as Lions coach has been brushed under the carpet. Yet he was the first to admit he made lots of mistakes on that tour and you can only learn from your experiences and your mistakes. He's admitted that is what happened to him.

Not everything is black and white. Not everything in the Southern Hemisphere is suddenly right again and everything in the Northern Hemisphere, apart from the way Wales won the Grand Slam, wrong. I've even had to read criticism of the Heineken European Cup and the Zurich Premiership.

But hang on a minute. Maybe in the last year or two the Super 12 has become more confrontational in the forwards and better in the set-pieces, but before that it was a pretty loose spectacle.

So for me the old emotions were in a bit of turmoil. I'm pretty proud of my involvement in Northern Hemisphere rugby with Ireland and Wasps and like to think there were plenty of progressive features to the game there, not just in England and Ireland. But you can't say anything positive about it now. You just have to smile and take it on the chin. The New Zealand media, because of the results out here, wouldn't be prepared to listen.

People think I'm mad when I say if I were Graham Henry I wouldn't play Justin Marshall in the All Blacks. To me this is typical of New Zealand. They are the best team in the world two years before the World Cup. Then, come the World Cup, it comes to a pressure game and they bottle it.

One of the two scrumhalves involved now is preventing somebody else from having the opportunity to gain invaluable experience in the front line with the All Blacks.

And it could come down to a scrumhalf being pitched into a semi-final or final who is not ready for it because he has been denied experiences like this or perhaps because Tana is a bit too old. These could be valid questions in two years' time.