Henry: 'It's wide open'

All Blacks coach Graham Henry believes that the 2004 Tri-Nations is wide open following the Wallabies 30-26 win over the Springboks in Perth on Saturday, despite his team in a position to retain the title on Saturday.

If the All Blacks beat the Wallabies in Sydney they will be sitting on a minimum of 12 points and neither the Wallabies nor the Boks will be able to beat them despite having a game in hand. But Henry is not prepared to celebrate yet.

"It's anybody's Tri-Nations still," he told the New Zealand Press Association.

"Although we're ahead on the points table at the moment, we've got two away tests."

Henry said that the result in Perth was what he had expected with the Wallabies weathering the pressure laid on by the Boks and then grinding out the victory.

"I thought the Australians got better as the game went on, as they acclimatised to the South African way of playing, a bit like we did last weekend," he said.

"I also thought the South Africans felt the effects of playing two big test matches in two weekends, which is a bit of a challenge, so they were falling away at lineouts and things like that."

But Henry was expecting the All Blacks' next two Tests to reveal how far the team had come under his guidance with two daunting games on the road lying in wait. To date the ABs are unbeaten in six Test matches under Henry.

"It's a great measuring stick, to play against two of the best countries in the world at their home venue," he said.

"Ellis Park would be the heart of South African rugby and Telstra Stadium would be the heart of Australian rugby.

"We're are going to have 80 000 people at both grounds, and not many Kiwis, and we're going to know how good we are."