That's probably not as bad as it looks. A plane would normally land on it's back wheels anyway, which would take the main weight until the speed was much reduced. Actually, landing on all 3 wheels, or the nosewheel first, would be pretty bad, and could cause the tire to explode or even the front landing gear to collapse. Also, it's normal for pilots to have the control column pulled back slightly during landing and takeoff rolls to keep the weight on the rear wheels, since the nose wheel is usually smaller and less sturdy, and also mostly unbraked. One thing they do seem to do though is brake very gently, which was useful since it would have stopped the weight being transfered to the front, possibly causing the nose to come down at much higher speed. Also, it says they circled for a while, which I presume was to burn off fuel and reduce weight allowing a slower approach.
Much more of a challenge is when they land with one of the main wheels not down, and it's also much more dangerous since the wing or engine striking the ground could lead to a fire. Here is an example of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXvurgLVdgE
Here's another one that happened at Birmingham not that long ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYKDPnjwUSE
