There's something about these Black and White clashes, at Twickenham especially, which makes them classics. This was a tumultuous occasion, a high-octane collision played at break-neck tempo. And at the end of it, the All Blacks had thrown down the gauntlet not only to England, but the rest of the world. They'll take some stopping now.

England and their media had talked this game up for so long, whereas the All Blacks serenely entered the lion's den, extracted his claws and made off with scarcely a scar or two. Mentally, as much technically, it was a compelling 80-minute effort by the All Blacks, which John Hart agreed was their best of 1999.

Tellingly, Jeff Wilson afterwards observed: "In my opinion that game was over-hyped and over-publicised, and not by us. We were pretty relaxed about the whole thing, because we knew what we had to do. We've got our World Cup momentum going now, and that was a lesson in how to operate with so little ball."

It certainly was. Rarely if ever can match statistics have been bandied around the post-match interviews and debate. Under the official column "ruck ball" the tally read 7321 to England, ball won in open play 80-24, ball won in opposition 22 2517, set-piece ball won 25-17 and gain line crossed 46-17.

However, as Phil de Glanville, who it has to be said was about England's only potent runner, admitted, the quality of ruck ball counts more more than the quantity.

"You have to be careful with statistics like that," commented John Hart. "You've got to look at the quality of the ball. England were taking the ball on to a yard or two from the previous breakdown. It may have looked good but it wasn't going anywhere. It's all about the front foot and getting it going forward."

The tackle count would have made more interesting reading. The All Blacks hardly seemed to miss one. Their swarming, aggressive defence and clinical opportunism from relatively fewer opportunities ultimately meant they actually won with relative comfort.

True, it got as close as it could do when England clawed their way back to parity at 16-16 in the third quarter, after Jeremy Guscott had twigged that the only way through the Black line was a deft grubber in behind them for de Glanville to score. Cue to Jonah Lomu.

He reinvoked English nightmares of the Cape Town semi-final four years ago with a vintage, trademark try. It was, as Hart conceded, the defining moment of the match. But as to whether England would otherwise have gone on to win, as some contended afterwards, is a moot point. The fact is that the All Blacks did win, and they do have Lomu, and besides, if they can't turn to him there's a host of others standing in line.

The bottom line is that they have a far sharper cutting edge than England's comparatively blunt instrument. Their scrum held up well too, Josh Kronfeld gave a master class in openside breakdown play, Taine Randell's decision-making showed why Hart has had such faith in his leadership, while the true man-ofthe-match was Andrew Mehrtens. Targeted defensively, he held up well, ran the show and was well nigh immaculate in his place-kicking, landing three out of three touchline conversions. "When Andrew Mehrtens is on song he's the best first five-eighths in the world, and today he was on song," enthused Hart.

The first try, ironically following Lomu's first touch in setting up the Blacks' first ruck ball in English territory when used through the middle off quick ball by Taine Randell's line-out take, was down to Mehrtens. His step past Martin Corry drew Guscott and released the flying Christian Cullen, for the ubiquitous Tana Umaga to put Jeff Wilson over in the corner.

Without a domineering pack, these Blacks will have to live by their wits as they did on Saturday.

A comparatively clueless England, by contrast, are not. They were poor here, perhaps duped into playing pyjama rugby only to be ensnared by the All Blacks' defence.

You could only feel a bit sorry for the English forwards.

Lawrence Dallaglio (though surprisingly under-used), Neil Back and Martin Johnson were coming up with some big plays, and their low rucking technique would even have found favour with Jim Telfer.

It was instructive to watch Alama Ieremia's lines of defence. Granted, he's an exceptional defender, but with Jonny Wilkinson running more across the pitch and no-one straightening the line as only the absent Will Greenwood can, Ieremia was able to cover across not one, not two, but sometimes three English ball-carriers. The net result was that sometimes the English wingers were getting the ball with three All Blacks converging on them.

They were thus largely dependant upon Jonny Wilkinson, for whom the pressure told, before Paul Grayson belatedly straightened their line and speeded up the distribution from out-half. By then it was all over.

The consequences of this result are the most seismic of the pool stages. The All Blacks now advance to a quarter-final, most probably against Scotland in Murrayfield, and then a semi-final against perhaps Ireland or France. They are not only odds on to reach the final for the third time in four attempts, but probably to win the cup as well.

England must now negotiate the additional hassle of a play-off game against Fiji, prior to a quarter-final against South Africa in Paris and then maybe a semi-final against Australia at Twickenham. It looks like the difference between a Formula One straight and a labyrinthine maze.