New Zealand coach Graham Henry felt his team proved a big point after rounding off their Autumn tour with a thumping 39-12 win over France. ?

The All Blacks produced a superb display of running rugby and crossed five times at Stade Velodrome.

Significantly, France failed to breach the Kiwi line in Marseille despite playing some entertaining rugby. And that means it is the second European tour in a row that the Kiwi tryline has not been breached.

Henry’s hard men followed up a Bledisloe Cup victory over Australia in Japan with wins against Wales, Italy and England, and now sign off next week against the Barbarians at Twickenham. Richie McCaw and Co may have surrendered the Tri-Nations title to world champions South Africa this season, but Henry clearly believes his side are the ones playing the better stuff.

Sitiveni Sivivatu, Mils Muliaina, Jerome Kaino, Cory Jane and Conrad Smith all crossed against a team who beat the Boks 20-13 recently. Dan Carter also kicked 14 points while all France had to show was three Julien Dupuy penalties and a Francois Trinh-Duc drop-goal. And Henry said: “It was a special day for all players who played.

“It’s good to see two teams wanting to play attacking football because there’s been some pretty boring stuff over the last year or so in rugby.

“Rugby’s a great game but there were two teams wanting to attack and I thought that was pretty special.

“To go through the last two tours of Europe without having our line crossed is also a remarkable record for the guys.

There was a superb defence and the attack was outstanding. I thought it was the best attacking display by an international side for some time.

Rugby’s a difficult game to play under modern rules and to play that game that well under those rules is a very fine achievement.

“It takes two sides to want to play: the French wanted to play and the All Blacks wanted to play.”

Meanwhile, skipper McCaw was quick to praise the impact of his team-mates after he was named International Rugby Board player of the year for 2009.

The all-action openside flanker claimed the award for the second time following his 2006 success, edging out Ireland duo Jamie Heaslip and Brian O’Driscoll, South Africa’s Fourie du Preez and Francois Steyn, Wallabies sensation Matt Giteau and England star Tom Croft. And he said: “It is a huge honour. I am extremely proud. I am just happy to be part of a team doing well. I am happy to do my bit, but it is a great honour. I’ve said it before, you can’t do it without a bunch of mates. It has been a trying year at times, but it is great to be part of a winning team.”

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