Henry heaps praise on All Blacks ahead of final showdown

Despite being the world’s top team for several years, New Zealand have not won the World Cup since 1987 when they beat Sunday’s opponents France.

But with Les Bleus struggling for form and the All Blacks fresh from a convincing semi-final victory over Australia, they will never get a better chance to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy.

“I’ve been with a lot of these guys for a long time, and although they may be ranked the leading team in the world, they’ve never been world champions,” said head coach Henry, who steps down after the final.

“It would be just marvellous to have that title because they’ve had every other title that is going in rugby apart from this one. I think they are good enough, and that would be the icing on the cake.”

Henry has retained the side that crushed Australia. The only switch is among the replacements, where flanker Adam Thomson has recovered from an ankle strain to take over from Victor Vito.