All Blacks fullback Mils Muliaina won't be risking himself playing club rugby next week after getting through a full Test match on his return from injury against Wales in Hamilton on Saturday night.
While he needed the game time, he felt it was probably better to work on his leg in the All Blacks training environment with the medical staff able to keep an eye on him.
He went into the game thinking he would get a break, probably early in the second half, but with Benson Stanley suffering a hamstring strain he was asked to stay longer.
"I wasn't really prepared for that but I got the call that Benson was a little bit tight and got asked if I could stay a little bit longer and I was pretty happy that I got through it to be quite honest."
The 83-Test veteran said he felt a little wierd staying so long and he realised he still had work to do on the sharpness side of his game.
"I was pretty ecstatic that I got through 80 minutes, it's been a long time. It was pretty emotional before the game, I was pretty nervous. I'm just stoked I got through 80 minutes in the black jersey," he said.
The side had made too many errors on attack when it should have been more clinical which was disappointing because it let Wales get off the hook.
"It was a little disappointing that the execution wasn't quite there," he said.
That was largely due to over-keenness and rushing things a little more than was necessary. Muliaina felt more early points might have settled the side down and taken some of the pressure off.
His combination with his wings Cory Jane and Zac Guildford, given it was the first time he had played with them under the law interpretations being used this year, was comfortable.
"CJ and Zachie worked pretty hard. There was a couple of breakdowns in execution but I think early on we started to break and open things up a little bit and the Welsh defence got a little tighter and the holes weren't probably there that we wanted," he said.
With more confidence, with more game time, he felt the chances would be there to open up defences more.
Pressure being on places for the Tri Nations side might have contributed but Muliaina said on Thursday and Friday he felt there was a feeling of players being a little on edge and keen to get into the game and he wondered if that had impacted on some of the decision-making.
"We were on edge, we were pretty excited and that probably hindered us a little bit with our execution," he said.