All Blacks coach Graham Henry was quick to praise the key areas of the All Blacks' 37-20 win over England - the mental toughness of his side, the performance of the midfield and a significant victory in a scrum contest where he also questioned the vailidity of the tourists' work.

A sloppy start, some lineout lapses and a messy final quarter were the main complaints from the coaching staff after a generally satisfying night at Auckland's Eden Park.

"I was pretty pleased with the performance. The guys showed a lot of mental toughness," said a happy Henry as the new season saw two wins from two starts after last week's victory over Ireland was backed up by a solid effort against the English.

"After 20 minutes we were under the cosh. The big English forwards had the better of the game, they were beating us at the tackle area. Our guys hung in their and came right and played pretty well for the next 40. The last 20 wasn't as good as we hoped - the ball was dropped and turned over.

"But overall, it was very pleasing really and something to build on. I think the guys should be very satisfied with the way they played."

Henry drew special praise for the work of his backs as Dan Carter controlled the match from his position and the new-look midfield of Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith starred with several scything runs.

"I thought the 10, 12 and 13 were exceptional. They played exceptionally well once they got some good ball after about 20 minutes," said Henry.

"We thought we could attack that channel and we looked to go wide as well."

Wayne Smith clearly took some satisfaction from his backline's work in this match.

"I was really happy," said Smith. "We had put a lot of work into looking what was in front of us and trying to adapt to what the English were doing. They are a fairly new team as well and we didn't have a lot of info on them. And I thought we did that pretty well. A lot of the plays were accurate and that was very positive."

Henry was also quick to mention the work of tighthead prop Greg Somerville. He believed his veteran front-rower won his highly publicised tussle with English man-mountain Andy Sheridan and in fact claimed the All Blacks had won the scrum contest.

He also believed the English had been reduced to stop trying in this key area towards the end of the match.

"I thought Somerville had a very good game. I thought he dominated the contest, I thought the All Blacks scrum was better than the England scrum tonight.

"It's just a pity that it started to fall over at the end. It destroyed the game as a spectacle to some extent and it would be good to see both sides trying to scrum. Hopefully that will happen next week."

Asked to explain further, Henry added: "I thought there was some passive scrummaging going on which doesn't help the game. I think with a big pack like that we need to be very positive. That would increase the game as a spectacle."

England forwards coach John Wells disputed Henry's claims. In fact, he saw things completely differently.

"We had a lot of good things happen today up front," said Wells.

"We had a good lineout that actually took some ball off the New Zealanders. But I'd actually look at it in reverse from the scrummaging perspective.

"In the first 50 minutes of the game we were under the cosh in the scrimmage and New Zealand probably had the edge there.

"But for the last 15 to 20 minutes of the game we were getting a better hit and better ball from the scrummage.

"There was a flurry of free kicks in that second half and I need to see the referee for what goes with that."

All Blacks forwards coach Steve Hansen admitted the lineout work was sloppy at times as the All Blacks were guilty of several crooked throws and also being pressured by the English jumpers. New Zealand conceded seven of their lineouts, somehting that won't be acceptable in the looming Tri-Nations.

"I think the lineout probably reflected the work we put into it this week. We didn't spend a lot of time on it and we probably need to spend a bit more time on it," said Hansen.

"I think we allowed ourselves to get pressured a bit by the English. They used their front lifter in the five-metre channel, the closed the gap well and put us under pressure because of that.

"When we did the lineout basics well we won our ball. When we didn't we put ourselves under pressure. We know what the problems are, we've just got to go away and fix it."

He will also be looking for his pack to make a better start to the match after they were on the back foot at the breakdowns over the opening phases at Eden Park before skipper Richie McCaw led the fightback in typical fashion.