Henry and his assistants Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen will guide the All Blacks at Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Steve Hansen | Sir Graham Henry

Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup | Tri Nations

Teams: New Zealand

All Blacks coach Graham Henry and his two assistants, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, will lead New Zealand's assault on the next Rugby World Cup on home soil in 2011.

The New Zealand Rugby Union has re-appointed the trio, who were at the helm when the All Blacks crashed out of RWC'07 in the quarter-finals at the hands of hosts France, insisting that they were "a very strong and experienced team".

"Graham, Wayne and Steve are outstanding coaches. They have a formidable record and we hold them in very high regard," said NZRU chairman Jock Hobbs. "They are totally committed to New Zealand rugby and have become an important part of the wider organisation."

Hobbs said the decision to re-appoint the coaches before the end of the 2009 season was taken by the NZRU board in April.

"We agreed the time was right to consider the next two years, and the re-appointment reflects our confidence in them."

Henry and his assistants, who took charge in 2004, have won 57 out of 66 tests, an 86 percent winning record. Under them, the All Blacks have also defended the Bledisloe Cup in five successive seasons, won the Tri Nations four times, achieved a clean-sweep of the British and Irish Lions in 2005, and won two Grand Slams in 2005 and 2008.

They have lost only once in Europe in their tenure, the Rugby World Cup quarter-final reverse to France, and just twice in New Zealand, in 2008 to South Africa and last month to France in Dunedin. The trio's tenure will stretch to eight years, comfortably an All Blacks coaching record for longevity.

Fronting media after All Blacks' training in Wellington today, 63-year-old Henry said the drive to win a Rugby World Cup and atone for 2007 was strong.

"Once this Tri-Nations is over we need to be thinking quite a bit about that," he told NZPA. "Your thought process looks forward to two years' time."

The Tri-Nations needed full attention because of the new-look nature of Henry's current team, who had struggled through last month's tests against France and Italy.

"A third of the side is playing their first year of All Black rugby and we just need to get our feet under the table and get comfortable with that group of people," he said. "And once that has been achieved, I think we can look ahead a bit more."

Henry described his reappointment as a "huge privilege" and one which seemed a world away in the aftermath of the disastrous loss to France in Cardiff two years ago.

"After the World Cup, I don't think any of us thought we would continue," he said. "But after our review and the support of other people and support of the guys we coach, we decided to carry on.

"We managed to do reasonably well last year, we've got major challenges this year obviously and we're building quite a new side. And there's obviously challenges on the horizon."

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw welcomed the news, which he said would provide "certainty" for the players and a co-ordinated approach to the World Cup.

"You only focus on one campaign at a time but you can build on it and you know you've got 2-1/2 years to keep building on what we're doing," McCaw said. "For this team to keep performing the way we have, it's nice to know we've got the same crew that are going to lead that."