When are the New Zealand rugby public going to ease up on the All Blacks?
They are never satisfied.
When we have a team that is doing really, really well, we continue to look for the drama all the time. Why can't fans just sit back and enjoy what is being played out in front of them?
Let's face it, the quality of rugby the All Blacks are playing is sensational. No-one can complain they are not getting their money's worth when watching them play. But the attitude of New Zealand fans blows me away. We have never been able to have enough of winning, but the All Blacks are a great streak and we are still managing to criticise one way or another.
There's no such thing as perfection, in any walk of life; that's just the reality. But when you've got something that is pretty close with a team that is growing and doing really good things, your job as a fan is to sit back and enjoy not criticise it.
Let's not forget that when this whole international season started no-one was expecting this sort of rugby from a team that had lost so much experience. Steve Hansen admitted that, and now four international sides, Wales, Australia, Argentina and South Africa know how it feels.
The way it stands at the moment, the success is almost working against the team.
It is the nature of New Zealand fans, not only in rugby, but other sports as well. At the same time, all those sports do tend to bring the best out of themselves because they are fuelled by a desire to prove the doubters wrong.
It's the sportspeople who go out onto the field, or to the Olympics or Paralympics or whatever, who respond to those people who tell them: 'You'll never do this, or you'll never do that'. They get out there and show people they can do it, and I guess that's probably because we are such hard knockers that it brings out the best in our athletes.
But you do have to wonder how much better they might be if they didn't have to go through that and could concentrate on their sports and playing to their best.
I remember losing a couple of games for Wasps when playing in England and being almost embarrassed to go out and sign autographs for fans afterwards and to shake their hands. They were telling me that everything would be fine and that a win would come along eventually. And they would still be there to watch it.
My belief was that it wasn't the attitude I had come from in New Zealand. What the fans were saying was they could accept it, and were used to it, but having come from the All Blacks and Auckland environment of the 1990s, that wasn't something I could accept. And I couldn't understand why they could accept it.
This All Blacks team have been put on a massive pedestal where a whole bunch of New Zealanders are finding any reason they can to eat away at the bottom of it to cause it all to come crashing down.
It's frustrating: How good were they on Saturday night?
They were as good as they could be, and South Africa to their credit played well -- much like Argentina the week before. They did what they could do but they just couldn't live the All Blacks.
If I were Owen Franks, I would be getting outside Dane Coles whenever he touches the ball because he just seems to be able to put people over the tryline.
I've got a good mate, who I spent a lot of time throwing my arm around and smashing in the front-row for Auckland and the All Blacks in Sean Fitzpatrick, who is generally regarded as one of the great All Blacks of all time.
But Dane Coles is certainly reminding me a lot of Fitzy, especially in his attitude towards that All Blacks jersey, and the way he plays the game; he has got leadership written all over him. If ever Dane Coles is out there when Kieran Read had an injury then as a shining light in the No. 2 jersey Coles epitomises what being an All Blacks players is all about.
We've watched this kid mature.
I've criticised him at times for his hot temper but he has that under control, although a hot temper directed in the right way can be a good thing. If he can harness that and point it in the right direction in all that he keeps doing he could be incredible; he is still coming to his peak and has a lot of years ahead of him.
Regarding the other night, we need to take one step outside and look back at teams like South Africa and Australia, who have key players out injured, and recognise they do not have the depth that New Zealand enjoy.
I do think Elton Jantjies froze on the big stage, as did Lions teammate Faf de Klerk inside him. They've had a great year and done really well with the Lions, but they've had to step up to international level and they look like they're lacking experience.
It's thrown out there all the time, but experience means that you just go and do your job, and you don't freeze, when the spotlight is on you.
But if you've never been there before and you have to front up to a full stadium and 50 million people around the world watching, you can sometimes go back into your shell; and I think the Springboks halves did that on Saturday.
It's a bit like Argentina in Perth. They failed to start like they did against New Zealand and suddenly after 15 minutes they were 21 points down. With all the best intents in the world, that is game over.
Perhaps that is a measure of how much their effort against New Zealand took it out of them because they certainly didn't look the same side. And again that is experience as they are still getting used to this competition and the need for consistency above all.