Bok's wounded and without Botha for rest of Tri-Nations

14 months to go until the World Cup and New Zealand got their Tri-Nations campaign off to a flyer with a, four try to nil, master-class over reigning champions South Africa.

Five points apiece from Conrad Smith, Maa Nonu, Kieran Reed and Tony Woodcock were just rewards for the All Blacks. The centre's grounding their scores in the opening period while it was fitting that forwards added the gloss in the second half after clear-cut dominance in both the scrum and line out set the foundations for a 32-12 win.

Midway through the last decade the All Black's set a trend for the rest of the world as they kicked long up field, confident of defending whatever was thrown back at them. The whole world followed suit but, at Eden Park on Saturday, they had come full circle.

The long-range prowess of Mourne Steyn lurked just behind the halfway line and it was a concerted ploy from the hosts to run every ball in the first half. Despite, conceding territory and the lead to the Springboks, the silver fern's kept on going.

With Bakkies Botha in the bin, Mils Muliaina found an acre of space and exploited it to the full, racing almost fifty yards before he needed to offload to the ever-available Richie McCaw. The captain had Smith on the overlap and, noticing only Victor Matfield providing outside cover, the smooth running centre hit the accelerator and found the corner with ease. Speaking after the full time whistle, McCaw underlined that the philosophy of running in his camp, does not signify a carefree attitude:

"You can have a go from your own half as long as you look after the ball and do the little things right."

By and large, the little things were done perfectly. Aside from an early drop from Muliaina, who has faced calls in recent weeks, for his jersey to be given to young pretenders like Corey Jane and Israel Dagg. The decibel level of that criticism would have increased greatly in his own head after the spilling the ball under little or no pressure. But the fullback took little time to redeem himself, providing the break that led to Smith's opening try.

Those opening 20 minutes could yet be a defining part of the Tri-Nations if the Kiwi's go on to reclaim the title. But, it was the opening seconds that may provide the biggest blow to South Africa's campaign.

Jimmy Cowan raced to a loose ball ahead of Botha, but feeling he had been held back, the second row displayed his (now customary) red mist, head-butting Cowan in the back of the head as he lay flat on the grass.

Referee Alan Lewis missed the incident but the big screens in Auckland did not, and a chorus of boo's followed Botha until he was eventually handed a nine-week ban yesterday, which rules him out of international fixtures until the autumn.

The Blue Bull's forward has apologised to all and sundry since being handed the layoff:

"I sincerely regret the incident, I have let my team, my country and my family down and I have done an injustice to the springbok jersey and what it stands for."

There are plenty outside of South Africa who would contest that; the Botha brand of foul play is exactly what the Springbok jersey stands for.

Botha has previous in this regard, in the Super 14 meeting with the Stormers this year he took less than 30 seconds to aim a head butt at (now international team-mate) Gio Aplon. Cowan, like Aplon is a much smaller man than Botha and was brutishly targeted in the opening minutes of the game.

The 30 year old's unreserved apology would seem a touch more sincere if the offences were not almost identical and Graham Henry's assertion that: "He's probably lucky he didn't get more than nine weeks" is being very kind to the lock.

"I truly regret my actions" continued Botha, "and will make sure that I put the extended time away from the game to positive use and return to playing with the right attitude."

If Botha does come back with the "right" attitude, it will be his first time, and he could then claim to have achieved everything in the game.

Matfield and his pack will have better days. But the Black set-piece was irresistible, a dominant scrum and three turnover scalps off Bokka line out ball.

Tom Donnelly and Brad Thorne were stand out performers up against the best second row in the world. On this form Graham Henry's side can aim for a 10 point haul after the second meeting in Wellington next Saturday, but the head coach was keen to play down the dominance of the scoreboard and will focus on the strengths of the "wounded" Boks to ensure complacency is not a factor:

"We're surprised by the magnitude of the result. The score line was blown out of proportion, I'm sure things will be more realistic next week.

"We'll get our feet back on the ground and see what alterations we need to make.

"They'll be a wounded animal next week and they'll play accordingly. They're a quality side with bright players and they're well coached. They'll improve immensely so it will be a more difficult game."