The best two teams in the world had an epic encounter with some young guns in Black stepping up to cement their credibility as test starters, with the South Africans showing very little on attack outside their big pack.
Red and yellow cards aside, the contest was mouth-watering and I was glued to the TV the whole match. I did feel a little bit of sympathy for the tourists after the first yellow by Bismarck du Plessis, but the Springboks will have to wait till next time to win at Eden Park, something they have failed to do since 1937.
Apples with Oranges
In stark contrast to the battle at Eden Park, I kept the TV on and started watching the Australians take on Argentina in Perth, only to quickly lose interest and almost fall asleep with boredom.
I wanted to mute the laid back, blasé Australian commentators who sounded like they weren't excited at all, but I needed sound to stay awake. The crowd in Perth was pathetic and only the prospect of Argentina winning their first match of the Rugby Championship in their second year competing with the big Southern Hemisphere Unions kept me up.
Sadly the Puma's lost by one point, and equally sadly the Wallabies didn't look like they had much on attack, which is usually their strong point.
While recently in Melbourne a few weeks ago, I briefly flicked through the sports section of a paper to see what the media were saying about the upcoming rugby games that night. I wasn't expected a preview of the All Blacks game against Argentina, but there wasn't one article on the Wallabies!
Maybe I was reading a particular newspaper that only had AFL or NRL readers, but I was surprised there was nothing on rugby, considering their national team was hosting South Africa that night.
I was in Melbourne at a writer's conference, and an Australian sports writer for Christian Today, Jeremy Dover, said that his son was an All Blacks fan! I don't blame him at all, but how embarrassing for a country that has won two world cups!
Are you waiting for another John Eels or George Gregan? Where is that national pride Australia? Maybe rugby in Australia is having trouble keeping its head above water with other sports dominating, which is a shame, there's nothing like some good old trans-Tasman rivalry.
It's almost a religion
Us Kiwi's don't win as many gold medals at the Olympics, we can occasionally beat Australia in the cricket, occasionally in the League if we're lucky, we don't bother or even understand AFL but most sports fans here are rugby nuts.
The public demand for rugby is such, that money gets pumped into development and only Wales and possibly South Africa are anywhere close to being more rugby mad.
After winning the world cup in 2011 New Zealand have stayed on top of the world rankings, something they've done in most years between World Cup's since 1987.
For little old New Zealand, rugby puts us on the map, and the country stands still while the All Blacks perform the Haka.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer brought a powerful pack, full of confidence to New Zealand after spanking the Aussies, and ready for the biggest match all year. Sadly beating the Aussies wasn't much a test.
The Boks certainly brought physicality to the breakdowns and collisions and in the first scrum of the game they pushed the All Blacks off the ball, but the rest was an arm wrestle that New Zealand wanted more, and they got it.
The All Blacks showed composure, key players stepped up even after Dan Carter was out with injury, and the fans went away satisfied of another clinical win by their national hero's.
For Australia's sake, I hope you're rebuilding, Rugby is better with some competition. The Southern Hemisphere is losing its reputation of having the best three Rugby nations in the world.
Brad Mills enjoys the outdoors and almost any sport... For a day job he's a journalist who works at the Rhema Broadcasting Group in Auckland New Zealand.
Brad Mill's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/brad-mills.html