When New Zealand is the best rugby league team in the world – in other words, whenever they can beat Australia – the song usually remains the same. 

Great teams can match the Kangaroos but you need great players to really crack them open. Stacey Jones was great at it in his day and so were Benji Marshall and Shaun Johnson.

The styles may have differed, but the one thing each of the halfbacks had in common was an unaccountable brilliance.

Relying on somebody to produce that brilliance isn't always a sustainable way to go but when somebody is in the kind of form Jahrome Hughes produced in New Zealand's 48-10 win over Ireland what else can you do but ride it as far as you can and hope it's enough, because if it's not then whatever could be?

Overall, the performance from Michael Maguire's side was a patchy one. We're at the point of the World Cup where the big fish are sick of feeding on minnows and are already thinking about what they'll do in deeper waters.

But Hughes, in his first match of the tournament, found some of the special magic. He would have flayed any team in the world with the way he played – after scoring the first try of the match he played a hand in four more before half time before crossing again in the second stanza.

It was a sophisticated performance – Hughes beat defenders for speed and footwork, put in pinpoint attacking kicks and found the right passes when it counted and a mark of how far he has come.