All Black coach Graham Henry was lavish with his praise of the Springboks, following South Africa's 18-5 Tri-Nations victory over New Zealand in Port Elizabeth at the weekend.

"They played with a lot of passion and I thought the Boks were very good," said Henry.

"They scrambled well on defence, and kicked their goals.

"On the other hand, we had six opportunities to score and only took one of them."

Henry said he had no concern over his side's game plan as they managed to create enough scoring opportunities.

"I'm sure that when we get a few of our more experienced players back, I expect that things will settle down a bit," said Henry.

Henry's assistant Wayne Smith, also praised the Boks' cover defence.

"It's not too often that you break the opposition's line 23 times and you end up losing the match," said Smith.

"But it says a lot for their [the Boks'] scrambling defence.

"It looked like we lacked patience in closing those try-scoring situations.

"I suppose it was the new combinations or just youth, or maybe South Africa's defence was just too good on the day."

SAPA