By Graham, New Zealand are having a hard time at the moment. They've lost two games on the trot, one to South Africa, the world champions, and one to Australia, and if they lose to the Aussies again on Saturday that will make, wait for it, three.

That hasn't happened since 1998, when the All Blacks thrashed a collection of hapless English tourists in two Tests (sound familiar?), then proceeded to lose five on the bounce. It's worth pointing out that since that horrifying run (all five defeats at the hands of Australia or South Africa, all of them by 10 points or fewer, three of them by five or fewer) New Zealand have lost twice in a row on three other occasions, the last of which was in 2004.

So they're not quite the walking disaster some might have us believe, particularly the New Zealanders themselves. It's important, as the All Blacks' world seems to be caving in all around them, that we up north, so removed from the bedlam, so balanced and reasonable, hold up our hands in their defence and say that we feel their pain.

Brian Ashton, Andy Robinson, Gareth Jenkins, Bernard Laporte, Eddie O'Sullivan, Frank Hadden, even Sir Clive himself – they would all love their crises to be as modest as those of the All Blacks. While you're at it, you could throw in Eddie Jones, John Connolly, Rudi Straeuli and even Sir Jake.

We had the heartbreaking sight this week of Graham Henry and his fellow All Blacks coaches actually apologising to their unforgiving public for these two scandalous losses. Can't remember Sir C ever doing that. Not even after steering the Lions so adroitly to a 3-0 hiding at the hands of you know who.

Henry and co were beating themselves up badly about how they were out-coached on Saturday and how their team played suicide with their crazy tactics, running the ball all the time. They're being too harsh on themselves. It was crazy to drop the ball so much, but that was presumably not a deliberate decision. It's quite easy to argue, indeed, that New Zealand didn't run the ball enough.

The All Blacks don't really have a kicking game, so asking them to do more of it is hardly the right way to go about things. Dan Carter has an excellent boot, so he can kick if he wants to. After that, though, the best kicker in the All Blacks team this Tri-Nations has pretty much been Ali Williams, who is meant to be a lock forward. Mils Muliaina, who should be next, sent a woeful clearance kick off turnover ball into the arms of Lote Tuqiri on Saturday, Tuqiri ran it back with some glee and suddenly New Zealand were 10-0 down after 10 minutes. Kicking didn't seem such a good idea at that point.

So New Zealand started to run. Both their first-half tries stemmed from counter-attacks that began inside their 22, bringing up a 17-12 scoreline at the break. If they'd just kicked the ball away, they might have been 17-0 down. The running tactic was actually keeping them in the game, and if they hadn't dropped the ball so much it might have earned them the lead.

Even when it did do that at 19-17 early in the second half (and that lead could have been extended but for Peter Hynes taking out Sitiveni Sivivatu off the ball), it was their kicking to touch that did for them. Jimmy Cowan heroically dived at the feet of Tuqiri to gather the ball 10 metres out from his line, then he (understandably) hoofed the ball towards touch. It didn't make it, and Australia scored from the counter-attack to retake the lead on the hour, Rocky Elsom leaving Sione Lauaki for dead. Then, and only then, could we possibly argue that things went badly wrong, and Lauaki, an unfortunate substitute, was at the centre of most of that.

So Graham, Wayne, Steve – you've all coached up here in the north. You know what real disaster on a rugby field feels like. This is nothing. You've lost two matches – one that you would probably have won if Williams had not gone off in the first half and, even then, should have won, and another that you might have won if you'd kept your cool and not dropped the ball so much. Now is not the time to be cowed into a Springbok kickathon.

More to the point, don't be afraid to go on about the number of players that you have lost to the euro and pound. We're stripping you bare at the moment. It's not fair, but it was inevitable the moment the game went professional (which was a southern-hemisphere idea anyway). It's the economy, stupid.

You're doing amazingly well to remain so competitive, but if you want to return to your dominating ways you could always get the powers that be to agree to you selecting off-shore players – all the other countries do it. With Hayman, Jack, Collins, Kelleher, Mauger, McAlister and Howlett back in the saddle, you'd surely be sitting on three comfortable wins out of three this Tri-Nations.

And then the English at least might feel a bit better about what happened to them on tour this summer. Go on, keep your nerve and beat Australia – do it for the embarrassed English. Just before they reach for their chequebooks and strip you of more players.