Henry hails All Blacks efforts

Henry: Delight

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Graham Henry believes there is plenty more to come from his New Zealand side after their Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations victory over Australia in Auckland.

The Wallabies got off to a perfect start with a try from Berrick Barnes after three minutes and, thanks to a conversion and a penalty from Matt Giteau, they held a 10-0 lead only nine minutes into the match.

A penalty for either side then followed before All Blacks captain Richie McCaw touched down to pull the home side back into it on 25 minutes, with Stephen Donald converting.

Donald then added two further successful penalty kicks and, while Giteau responded to level matters at 16-16, Donald added to his tally in the 61st and 73rd minutes to complete the victory.

Henry said: "The guys showed a lot of character to come out of that and played better as the game went on.

Rusty

"There were a lot of guys who hadn't played for a while and I'm sure they would have felt a bit rusty and it took them a while to get into the game.

"It was a very pleasing result. The guys got back to the backbone they've had in recent times and played with huge character and got better as the game went on.

"We should get better now. We've got a foundation to build on and some of the players hadn't played for a number of weeks so they should get better as the Tri-Nations goes on."

Henry was particularly pleased with Donald, who had returned from a hamstring injury and a disappointing run of form to kick 17 points in the game.

"It was good to see Stephen Donald play so well," he said.

"I thought he probably had his best game at international rugby at 10. It was pleasing and he gave us a lot of direction."