So Graham Henry's All Blacks easily brushed aside the Scottish at a thankfully dry Murrayfield, inflicting just the sixth whitewash in World Cup history.

But despite the 40 point margin of victory, there was a lot missing from this Kiwi performance.

In the face of a painfully limited Scot team, missing a number of their top players with coach Frank Hadden rightly keeping an eye on their crush match against Italy in six days time, New Zealand failed to find the fluency that has been the hallmark of their opening matches in Pool C.

Henry named his strongest possible lineup, injury permitting, but apart from the odd flash of brilliance they were strangely flat and lacking in inspiration.
In fact, one of the few players to do himself justice was Doug Howlett. The Munster-bound flyer ran in two tries today to eclipse Chris Cullen's all-time try-scoring record for the All Blacks, raising the bar to 48.

The reason for this failure to produce? I look no further than the colours both teams played in today.

Both squads lined up in a mixture of dark blue, light blue and grey, making it dreadfully difficult to figure out who was who in the rucks and mauls.

In the past when these sides clashed, one would alway wear a change strip of white tops, easing the recognition of both sets of players for spectators and officials alike.

For some reason this was not possible today. I believe this is called progress!