WELLINGTON - After watching his New Zealand side dismantle Australia in the opening Tri-Nations match, coach Graham Henry will be in confident mood ahead of his trip to Brisbane this week to watch the Wallabies play South Africa.
The All Blacks ran up an emphatic 32-12 victory over the Wallabies in Christchurch on Saturday, but Henry knows his team can get even better before they meet the Springboks in Wellington on July 22.
Henry settled on arguably his strongest side on Saturday after making changes in three earlier tests to help players recover from the Super 14 competition and give those on the fringes a chance to impress.
The lack of cohesion evident in those tests was nowhere to be seen on Saturday, as the rampant All Blacks applied intense pressure at the scrum and breakdown, which stifled the Wallabies and their dangerous backline.
It took 20 minutes for New Zealand to get a grip on the game, but after they settled there was no looking back. Wallabies Rocky Elsom's yellow card in the 27th minute allowed New Zealand to drive home their superiority.
By the Numbers
The previously suspect New Zealand lineout was solid, poaching one of the Wallabies throws without loss, while the scrum and defence were outstanding.
"When you're in that sort of mood it's pretty hard to break down," All Blacks' centre Aaron Mauger told the New Zealand Press Association of his side's defence.
"When they were attacking us, our guys were just loving it really. They were getting up and smacking them over and going in numbers as well."
But despite the margin of victory and strong all-round performance, there was a feeling the team were still just a couple of ticks off in terms of execution.
At least three try-scoring opportunities were botched by forward passes, while at other times superb interplay between forwards and backs was ruined as the final pass went to ground or a player tried to force the issue.
Australia coach John Connolly said he felt his side had gifted the game to the All Blacks, but the pressure applied by New Zealand created those opportunities.
Connolly's decision to blood untested tight forwards should pay off in the long run, but whether they will be competitive enough in the short term is Australia's biggest concern.
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