Henry hails 'best ever' win
Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:52
Courting trouble: All Black coach Graham Henry. (c) Gallo
New Zealand coach Graham Henry praised his side after watching them clinch a last-gasp 29-22 victory over South Africa in Soweto Saturday to seal the 2010 Tri-Nations title.
Late tries from captain Richie McCaw and replacement Israel Dagg saw the All Blacks spoil the Springboks party at Soccer City before a sell-out 88,791 crowd.
"They do not get any bigger than that," Henry said.
"It was a huge match played in front of an amazing crowd, but I am so proud of my team," said Henry as they completed a three-Test clean sweep of wins this year over the reigning world champions.
"They showed great character to stick together and these are the kind of players you would like to go to war with. It’s very special - to come from behind at altitude against the world champions made it even more memorable."
"We were up against 94,700 people as well as the Springboks and I can't imagine too many of our wins rank up with this one," added Henry.
The test was played at the same stadium used for last month's soccer World Cup Final and was watched by the largest crowd in a South African international in 55 years.
"It's an amazing stadium, the atmosphere was incredible with all that din and you can either let that get on top of you or keep talking to each other," said All Black captain Richie McCaw.
"Sometimes you can feel really alone out there if things aren't going your way but as rugby players you want to test yourselves in these sort of situations."
The All Blacks also paid tribute to South Africa captain John Smit on the day he became the first Springbok forward to play 100 tests.
"My heart goes out to John, he always comes off the field a gentleman and it's an amazing achievement to reach 100 tests and I was very proud to be part of it," said forward Keven Mealamu.
"He's been one of the most successful captains in history. To put that many caps together is a massive achievement."
Henry praised All Blacks conditioning coach Nic Gill, saying he deserved credit for the way the team managed to snatch victory in the dying minutes.
"Nic Gill doesn't often get credit but he's got this team in great shape and it showed in the last 10 minutes, their fitness is superb," Henry said.
"We finished stronger and they showed the ability to hang in there, the ability to do the job under all sorts of stress."
Henry, who described the victory as one of the biggest in his distinguished coaching career, also paid tribute to captain McCaw after his late contribution.
Apart from scoring a try, the flank also made the turnover that enabled Dagg to cross the line.
Henry added of McCaw: "His contributions have been outstanding for the whole year.
"That's just an example of two situations which create match-winning performances.
"But I'm sure he'd want me to say that there were 14 other players out there and they all hung in together."
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