There were a wealth of positives for coach Ian Foster to take from the All Blacks' jaw-dropping performance against the Springboks in Auckland, where his side sent the rugby world a timely reminder they'd be a force to be reckoned with in France in under two month's time.
The hosts' exploded off the mark with a breathtaking display of rugby on both sides of the ball, setting a torrid pace the South Africans couldn't match while executing every aspect of their game with brutal accuracy.
Despite the daunting 20-3 halftime scoreline, nobody expected the world champions to go down without swinging some counter punches of their own - particularly with their highly vaunted "bomb squad" waiting to make their mark off the bench.
Those counter shots eventually came, but it was the fashion in which the All Black's dealt with those that most impressed Foster.
Protecting large leads has been an Achilles heel for this All Blacks side, most notably in their capitulation against England at Twickenham last year, when they squandered a 25-6 advantage with 10 minutes to play to be forced to settle for a draw.
As the Boks' beefcakes took to the field and made an instant impact at the breakdown, there was no sense of panic for these All Blacks, as they stuck to their task and responded with two late tries of their own to extinguish any suggestion of a comeback by the visitors.
"[There were] lots of swings and roundabouts in the game but the way we climbed through some of the ebbs and flows and came out on top is something we're pretty proud of," said Foster from the bowels of Go Media Stadium Mt Smart.
"We obviously stung them at the start with the tempo we were able to play, and I thought our desire to play on top of them early was there and we got good reward for it.
"They came back. We've spoken before about defending leads and they had a lot of experience on the bench in that third quarter.
"But I thought we rode through that and that's a good little step for us."
Springboks weapon Cheslin Kolbe's swandiving finish in the corner reduced his side's deficit to just eight points in the 67th minute.
The All Blacks maintained their composure to manufacture a pair of well-worked tries to stand-out Will Jordan and Richie Mo'unga to emphatically close out the contest.
The All Blacks took some risks late in pursuit of a bonus point try that would have sealed the Rugby Championship title, giving their opponents the quality field position they capitalised on with the last try of the match.
Regardless, Foster insists the team's second-half response under duress would have given them an injection of self-belief.
"That gave us a lot of confidence," Foster admitted.
"Any win over South Africa is pretty special and particularly this Southern African team. So, to deal with the best they had off the bench and the way we did it was encouraging.
"But I guess the thing that will give us the most confidence is that they had a lot of moments in the second half that they were on top. But rather than losing our way for too long we managed to find a way back. So, I think that was the part that's really pleasing.
"If we can keep building that confidence and that part of our game in the first half, stuff would be pretty good."
In their opening quarter salvo, the All Blacks looked like they couldn't have put a foot wrong if they'd tried.
Through a relentless 15 minutes, they secured 93 percent of possession and 100 percent tackle completion, varying their point of attack expertly en route to a 17-0 lead.
The Boks had some impetus late in the half, when they launched a sustained assault on the All Blacks' tryline, which the Kiwis managed to hold out to maintain their hefty advantage going into halftime.
"We were sort able to execute a lot of what we planned and trained, which isn't always the case in test matches," said captain Sam Cane.
"I just thought that we won those initial collisions. Our breakdown was good and that allowed us to move the ball to space.
"We nullified their line speed a wee bit, and were able to go bang bang a couple of times and then hold them out right on halftime, which I thought was important too."
The blistering start had shades of last weekend's effort in Mendoza against the Pumas, leaving Foster and his cohorts hopeful they could make them a habit.
Foster dismissed any suggestion the win had given his team any psychological edge over the Springboks heading into the World Cup, pointing to the unique demands of tournament rugby that often render these kinds of results irrelevant.
Either way, Foster was content with how his team is tracking 56 days out from their Cup curtainraiser against the hosts in France.
Only a massively unlikely turn of events could deny the All Blacks their Rugby Championship title defence, including what would have to be a very one-sided defeat to the winless Wallabies in their final game of the competition in Melbourne on July 29.
"I think we said that at the start that we really wanted to focus on the here and now, and this team has learnt that if we get distracted by looking too far in the distance that we trip ourselves up," said Foster.
"I have a lot of growth to do I think. But we are learning that let's just nail each week at a time and not think too much about anything else and just focus on being as good as we can be right now and in some ways that's been a good formula for us.
"It's meant that we haven't tried to over analyse the past or get too excited about the future."
Based on early stages of their 2023 campaign, there are plenty of reasons for the All Blacks faithful to begin reassessing their expectations of what that future may entail.
