2011 WORLD CUP:THE LENGTHY build-up and huge swell of anticipation were to blame for New Zealand's error-strewn victory over Tonga in yesterday's opening match of the Rugby World Cup, All Blacks coach Graham Henry said.

A bonus point for scoring four tries was assured by half-time but a ragged All Blacks side emerged for the second half and they ended the game having conceded an unusually high 13 penalties.

“Made too many mistakes and gave away too many penalties, basically, so a bit of work to be done,” said Henry at Eden Park after the 41-10 win.

“We have been waiting a long time for this and perhaps we weren’t as free as we normally are. I revert back to the last World Cup in 07 . . . (the easy 76-14 win) against Italy (in the opening match) and it didn’t do us much good,” added Henry, whose side were beaten by France in the quarter-finals of that tournament.

Henry will have a week to iron out the kinks in his side before they play their second Pool A match against Japan in Hamilton on Friday. The coach was not all doom and gloom, however, and praised the performances of centre Sonny Bill Williams and fullback Israel Dagg, who scored two tries. “We scored some good tries and got maximum points, competed well and had a good structure,” said Henry.

However, the mistakes were the overriding memory of a frustrating night for the home side, who have the heavy weight of a rugby-obsessed population demanding that, after five failures, they win the World Cup for a second time.

Captain Richie McCaw gave his reaction. “If you are up by some points, the good teams are the ones that keep their pressure on regardless of what the scoreboard says and that is something we will have to address a bit,” he said.

“For the most part I think we did some good stuff early and we just have to make sure we do that for the full 80 minutes.”