Henry targets perfect tour

Henry: delighted with victory over Wales

We can start talking about the grand slam now it is a reality.

Graham Henry
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New Zealand coach Graham Henry was happy for his players to start thinking about a grand slam tour following Saturday's 29-9 victory over Wales.

The All Blacks have now beaten Scotland, Ireland and Wales on successive weekends and can complete the full set against England at Twickenham next Saturday.

Henry's men came from 9-3 down in Cardiff to score 26 points without reply, tries from Ma'a Nonu and Jerome Kaino supplemented by fly-half Daniel Carter's 19-point haul from the boot.

"I am delighted for the guys and they showed a lot of composure," said Henry, who coached Wales from 1998-2002.

"I thought they were superb in the second half which was probably the best 40 minutes of rugby we had produced all year. It was a good Test match that was mightily competitive.

Reality

"We can start talking about the grand slam now it is a reality.

"You don't want to get ahead of yourselves now and teams have been guilty of this in the past.

"We did not want to be in that situation and I think it is arrogant anyway."

The final obstacle to that grand slam, England, suffered a 42-6 hammering by South Africa on Saturday to follow on from last week's defeat to Australia.

But Henry is taking nothing for granted, adding: "We will watch the England game today and start to analyse them.

"There will be some depression in England after that result.

"Martin Johnson has got a lot of character and I have a lot of time for him. He will take things on the chin and get on with things because that is all he can do.

"It will take time for things to get where he wants to get to and people need to be patient."

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw admitted his side had been spurred on against Wales by their New Zealand rugby league counterparts' World Cup win over Australia earlier on Saturday.

"I watched the rugby league game and we talked about it as a forwards pack," said McCaw.

Gamesmanship

And on the stand-off after the Haka when the Wales players held their ground, McCaw added: "It was a bit of gamesmanship.

"The referee was keen to get on with things. I was not sure if the game was going to get started to be honest.

"There was a stand-off but there was a point where you had to get on with the game.

"There was a fair bit of feeling from both teams and I thought it was good.

"It really showed that both teams wanted to play and the intensity of the start of the game showed that.

"Perhaps they got on top of us for a little early on."