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'We're not quite there yet' - Henry

June 21 2008

New Zealand coach Graham Henry was overall happy with his team's 44-12 win over England in the second Test at AMI Stadium on Saturday, but recognises there is still a lot of areas to improve on.

The All Blacks wrapped up the two-Test series by scoring five tries past their English visitors, with the back-line contributing four.

The All Blacks led 20-0 at half-time. But Ali Williams and Richie McCaw both had to leave the field with what looked like serious injuries, placing both in some doubt for the Tri-Nations opener against the Boks in Wellington in two weeks.

Still, the New Zealanders hardly missed a beat, despite the unscheduled early arrival of Anthony Boric and Sione Lauaki off the bench, and subsequent reshuffling up front.

"When you win 44-12, it's not a bad result," Henry told Reuters.

"It's a pretty good England side but you just have to enjoy the moment, enjoy the occasion but recognise we have some work to do.

"We're scoring tries from the set piece, which is very positive. There is a lot to work on at the breakdown.

"I think we got better defensively as the game went on but there is still some work to do there though. We're not where we want to be yet."

An area of concern for New Zealand is once again in the line-out where the home side lost three of their own throws. It didn't help matters when Ali Williams went off with an ankle injury.

At the breakdown, Henry's men turned the ball over eleven time and dropped the ball on ten occasions in fine, if chilly, conditions in Christchurch.

"We're struggling to get good ball at the tackle area at times," Henry added.

"Set piece ball was pretty good though the line-out struggled a bit after Ali went off.

"Defensively I thought we lacked numbers in the first half, but the boys played a lot better in the second half and we improved as the game went on."

Henry added his side had begun to achieve some consistency despite making changes to give some of the new players in the squad game time ahead of the Tri-nations.

"I think if we had to come up with a result three weeks ago and said 'where would we like to be', I'd say we think we are better than we anticipated.

"(But) South Africa are a strong side and so are Australia so we have got some big games ahead. We have some work to do and improve those areas or we'll get second."

Henry also praised the contribution of Dan Carter who racked up 44 points in the two-Test series in Auckland and Christchurch, pocketing 22 points from each match.

And the million-dollar pricetag French club Toulon are said to be paying for his services for a season is becoming more and more of a bargain.

"He has gone up a couple of notches since the Super 14," Henry said. "He is enjoying his rugby and he wants to express himself. He's kicking beautifully and he scores the odd try.

"He is running the ship well and is prepared to have a crack.

"He has always been a very good defensive player and has gone in recent times from a very good defensive player, to a real threat with the ball and his goal-kicking has been pretty special.

"He is in a real purple patch of form at the moment."