Graham Henry feels the Springboks have gone away from their winning formula.

Graham Henry rates the current All Blacks side as probably the best one ever, while says the Springboks are in decline.

The former All Blacks coach wrote in a column for UK newspaper, The Guardian, that the All Blacks have been able to continue their dominance from the winning the 2011 World Cup, while he feels South Africa have been ordinary throughout this tournament.

"It is difficult to compare teams through the decades, but the current All Black side is probably the best New Zealand have ever produced," Henry wrote.



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"Their record backs up that belief: just three defeats since the last World Cup while, when you look at South Africa's recent results, they appear to be on the wane.

"It should make the semifinal a foregone conclusion but a meeting between the game's two superpowers never is.

"The fact they are playing New Zealand ensures South Africa will be at their best.

"The All Blacks have won six of the last seven matches between the sides while the Springboks lost to Ireland and Wales last November, were whitewashed in the Rugby Championship, beaten by Argentina for the first time, and started their World Cup campaign by going down to Japan.

"South Africa have got better since then but in the quarterfinal they faced a Wales team decimated by injury and a tank approaching empty yet managed just one try - and that was down to an individual's defensive error - despite hogging the ball in the second half."

Henry also took a swipe at the way the Springboks have reverted to a dull, 10-man game plan, preferring to use their forwards to cart the ball up, while their backs are being underutilised.

"They look to have neither the form nor the momentum of serious World Cup contenders and have gone back to the future, dumping the 15-man game that helped them beat the All Blacks last year in one of the greatest games of all time and reverting to physicality ahead of skill," Henry wrote.

"They are sound in the set pieces, the line-out especially, but South Africa's outside backs are largely unemployed.

"The forwards truck it up, mainly one out from the breakdown, and, with their body height poor, the result is invariably slow, unusable ball. In defence, their tight five appears to be slow and disorganised.

"It should be the All Blacks all the way but there is a massive rugby history over the last hundred years between these two great rugby nations.

"The All Blacks have maintained their momentum of the last four years after coming through a difficult hour in their first match against Argentina.

"They were able to focus early on in the quarterfinal, getting clarity over the game plan, improving conditioning and honing individual and unit skills. They delivered against France with a performance that set a new benchmark for the tournament."

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