All Blacks coach Graham Henry said lessons learned from his side's World Cup quarter-final loss to France in 2007 helped them win the 2011 trophy.Henry's side claimed their first World Cup in 24 years on Sunday, with an 8-7 win over France in Auckland, and Henry said he was grateful to New Zealand rugby bosses for sticking with him after the disastrous 2007 campaign.

Henry's side endured a heartbreaking 20-18 loss to France in Cardiff four years ago, their worst ever World Cup result, and Henry praised the New Zealand Rugby Union for keeping the faith in his leadership.

"The decision in 2007 was a difficult one for the New Zealand Rugby Union to do," he said. "But maybe it was the right thing to do."

"I’m thankful for the guys that reappointed these people. Far too often people are replaced because they don’t get results – we are too quick to shoot the coach. Wholesale cleanouts and start again – how do you learn from that?"

Henry said Sunday's win helped exorcise some demons for his team.

"Personally you have some peace and that’s a great feeling," he said.

"The guys have won the World Cup and that’s outstanding. To win this – there’s no words for it quite frankly."

"Our defence was outstanding, especially to give no penalties away and to guts it out."

"For a long time this team has been ranked No. 1 in the world and it was just great to be able to hang in there and do the business under pressure."

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw paid tribute to his team-mates after the victory.

"It says a lot about the men we have in this team," McCaw said.

"It wasn’t pretty but it came down to how much courage and desire they had. Last week (against Australia) we showed the rugby we can play and today we did enough to win."

"After they scored their try the big thing was not panicking."

"After 2007 we knew we were going to be in for a hell of a game tonight. The senior players wanted to learn from that. I wanted to test myself in the toughest conditions and it doesn’t get tougher than that."