New Zealand coach Graham Henry believes there is better to come from his side after they began their Tri Nations campaign with comprehensive back-to-back wins over world champions South Africa.
The All Blacks cruised to a 31-17 win in Wellington yesterday to follow their equally impressive 32-12 success in the Auckland opener a week ago.
Henry's side have outscored their rivals by eight tries to two in the two games with their success arriving on the back of good counter-attacking rugby, choking defence and superiority at the breakdown, which has given them quick ruck ball to run the Springboks off their feet.
‘I think we're probably playing about 75 [percent],’ said Henry. ‘I think we can get a lot better.
‘We're not getting carried away. Obviously we're delighted to win and we've played some pretty good rugby in the last couple of weeks.
‘We were more clinical in Auckland than we were last night. The South Africans played a lot better last night than they did in Auckland.
‘It was pretty close for long periods of the game. After 60 minutes it could have gone either way.’
Henry felt there were three key factors in the turnaround in form from last year where they lost all three matches to the Springboks and struggled to stamp their authority on games.
‘There were a lot of senior players who didn't play in the initial [June] series last year and that's critical when you're building a pattern and building a team,’ Henry explained.
‘The law changes have made the game a lot better to play and it suits our style and the leadership of the side has been particularly good.
He added: ‘Maybe we're more on the same page as a coaching group and senior players group as well, which we've worked pretty hard at.’
The loose forward trio of Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino and Kieran Read has played a big part in winning the battle up front and giving impetus to counter-attacking moves with all three making good yards with the ball in hand as well.
‘[Kieran] is playing superbly and so are Jerome and Richie. That loose forward trio has been quite superb,’ enthused Henry.
‘They can all carry, they can all lineout and they can all tackle and they are becoming a very dominant force in the game at the moment and that's particularly pleasing from our point of view.’
So with 10 points in the bag, the All Blacks now get a week's breather as South Africa and Australia clash in Brisbane next weekend.
Henry said some of the players who had had little game time in the past two weeks would most likely get a run in provincial pre-season games but for the bulk of the squad it was a matter of resting bruised and battered bodies.
‘This next week is very important for them to recover correctly and have some time out of rugby,’ he said.
‘It has been intense and they've been hard Test matches. It's good to have a break at this stage.’
