Sir Graham Henry dished out high praise for the All Blacks' World Cup quarterfinal win over France, describing it as "benchmark performance".

Sir Graham Henry has thanked the current All Blacks for giving "closure at last" to the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal exit he oversaw.

Henry, writing his latest column for The Guardian, felt the All Blacks had "set a World Cup benchmark" with their 62-13 demolition at Cardiff last Sunday (NZT).

It had also finally erased the painful memories he had suffered since losing to France at the same stage of the 2007 tournament against the same opposition.



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"I might not get asked about a certain match in 2007 any longer. I can move on … a big fat black line drawn under it; closure at last," Henry wrote.

"For the players and management who had been there in 2007, the past would have been tucked into a little compartment in their minds, but the focus would have been on the present and getting the job done."

Henry said the team had gone back to the basic foundations of why they played the sport to produce an outstanding performance.

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"It's like when they were young boys and they couldn't wait to wake up on a Saturday morning and go down to the local park and play with their mates. There is no doubt that the first block in building the ultimate sporting team is the love for what you are doing. Go forward, run, catch, pass, avoid people and score tries, and stop the other guys doing the same," he wrote.



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They had executed that magnificently, arriving at Millennium Stadium at their peak after cleverly pacing themselves during pool play.

"The All Blacks set a benchmark for the World Cup," he wrote, praising their game understanding, speed and intensity.

That was in contrast to their semifinal opponents the Springboks who had laboured past Wales.

"South Africa will have been pleased with the result rather than their performance; all that ball in the second half and just one try. They were largely one-dimensional, one-off forward runners who went into contact high so that the ball from the breakdown was slow, leaving some quality in their backline largely unemployed," Henry wrote.

He had praise for the Celtic nations despite their losses.

And he had sympathy for the manner of Scotland's heart-breaking loss to the Wallabies.

"Australia, like New Zealand in 2007, seemed to get ahead of themselves, which no matter how much you try to fight it is easy to do, a part of your mind in the following weekend rather than the now," Henry wrote of the Wallabies sneaking home 35-34 courtesy of a controversial late penalty goal.

"The Scots very nearly made them pay and whatever the rulebook rights and wrongs of that final penalty, it surely needs to reflect the severity of the offence which was nothing more than an accidental offside.

"On such fine margins are matches decided and reputations made."



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