ABs ahead of schedule, but busy - Henry

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Graham Henry won't tinker with his coaching mix again before next year's World Cup and has the core of his tournament lineup settled - but he warns some All Blacks are going to be disappointed at missing out on the looming end of year tour.

A year out from trying to win back rugby's biggest prize on home soil, Henry admits he is ahead of schedule.

There's still plenty to do and he emphasises there is as much as 25% improvement left in his team and strategy.

But after last year's disastrous Tri-Nations he's delighted to be speaking from a position of strength. The Tri-Nations trophy is back in the cabinet alongside the Bledisloe Cup and the winter test schedule wraps up in Sydney next Saturday where the All Blacks are determined to extend their winning streak of 14 consecutive tests and take their personal sequence against the Wallabies to 10.

Then he can get down to the difficult task of adding some icing to the cake. The base has been well and truly laid. A consistency of selection has brought results and well and truly set the foundations for his squad. Now he wants to explore more options when the All Blacks head off late next month to play Australia in Hong Kong and then another Grand Slam attempt against England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

After consolidation, get set for rotation to return out of necessity, according to Henry.

"I think it's obvious we are gong to have to. I know people don't like going down there but we are going to have give guys opportunities to play.

"Players have to experience international rugby. After Sydney we have only got nine tests prior to the Rugby World Cup so this is the opportunity to do that."

He is reasonably content with his depth, likening it to the year before the last World Cup. He says there's an abundance of back talent and that will cause some headaches of its own.

"I think the backs selection for the end of year tour is going to be extremely difficult and some very good players are going to miss out."

Up front there has been progress, particularly in the loose forwards with "half a dozen or more" up to test standard. The return of Ali Williams would help a locking department where the development of Sam Whitelock has been "very pleasing". In the front row Tony Woodcock has reaffirmed his "world class", Owen Frank's progress has been "phenomenal" and hooker Keven Mealamu "has never played better and is probably the best hooker in the world right now".

It's just a matter of giving more game time to their backups now, to provide some surety heading into the World Cup.

But while he will tinker with his playing stocks and lineups, Henry doesn't envisage changing the coaching roles of himself (attack), Steve Hansen (forwards) and Wayne Smith (defence) after shuffling the positions for last year's season-ending tour and again for the 2010 campaign.

"I think Steve is coaching the best I have every seen him coach. They are very together that forward pack and he has been very stimulating and on the job there. Wayne has always had hugely high standards and has continued that and I am sort of fiddling around, mucking around with it in a strategic way."

While the All Blacks have been lauded for setting the standards under the new law interpretations, Henry said in his mind the results were more a by-product of a need to re-establish the side after last year's woes that had included a home loss to France and three consecutive defeats by the Springboks.

The comeback had started on last year's tour north which was capped by the All Blacks' magnificence in Marseille. But he readily admitted their development this year had gone better than he had envisaged.

"Yeah, for sure - we have won 14 on the trot! But I think the standard was set in Marseille. A lot of the benefits we are seeing now are a result of last year's Tri-Nations where we hit rock bottom and we had to re-establish ourselves. The tour helped us do that considerably. We really set some objectives and it came together in the last test. Quite frankly that was beyond my expectations at the time. I thought we had played soundly in the test matches up till then without having any brilliance. And we played with some brilliance in that game and that set the standard for this year."

Henry believed the new interpretations suited New Zealand rugby. The ball in hand game was preached in the schools game and continued through to Super 14 level. The All Blacks had successfully implicated that but wouldn't sit on their laurels. They could evolve further before the World Cup.

"We have to keep on researching the game. We will do that over the next 12 months, keeping abreast of what is happening in the French top 14 and the European Cup ... just look at games and see if there are ideas coming through. We are thinking about what we are doing and how we can improve on it."

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