All Blacks over-rode Wellington's cold

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said Saturday's 21-11 victory over Ireland in driving rain in Wellington was the coldest weather he had ever played in, but he admitted there was warmth to be taken from the result.

"I've never really got cold out on the field but after halftime I was shivering," he said.

Given the reputation of the Irish pack, the players knew they had to get a parity with them and to be at the right end of the field to control the outcome.

But with players backing up from the efforts they had put in during the Super 14, and performing well defensively, the result had been a deserved win.

"We realised today it was probably going to be nasty weather so we adapted pretty well. The forwards took charge of the set piece, we won most of our lineout ball, our drive was right there and we got some go forward. I guess that's a big positive."

It was a case where the big boys had to get stuck in and most of them enjoyed doing that, he said.

"Even when we were 11 points all early in the second half there was no panic, there was composure there and belief in what we were doing."

The props had got into their work and it had always been important to get the scrum right and the second row had to take a bit of credit too.

"Ali [Williams] and Brad [Thorn], they love pushing so we got the ball we were after. It was hard to get good attack off it but we at least knew we could put some pressure on them and secure our own stuff which was critical," he said.

McCaw said he thought all the forwards relished being told to look after the ball in conditions like the game was played in. While some times you could lose ball in that situation, the All Blacks had held onto it for the most part and that allowed them to build pressure.

"The disappointing thing was just after we scored points we didn't take a kick-off and straight away that put us under pressure. I think they eventually scored from that. That was one thing we had actually talked about during this week that it was something in the past we have done on a number of occasions.

"That wasn't ideal, but the boys bounced back and even at 11-all we just kept believing in what we were doing," he said.

The switch in the loose forwards that saw Rodney So'oialo move to the side of the scrum with Jerome Kaino playing No.8 had worked well, McCaw thought, especially at the set piece.

McCaw said the only difference he felt with the new laws the New Zealanders had been playing with in Super 14, was the reversion to the closeness of the two backlines - something that negated the advantage to be had from having the superior scrum.

"I guess that's a thumb up to the new rules," he said.