All Blacks coach worried about squad depth

Wellington: A lack of depth in the All Blacks squad was a concern, coach Graham Henry said after his side were beaten by the invitational Barbarians in the final match of their European tour.

Henry rested almost all of his first-choice players for the game in the hope of giving several fringe players their chance to impress, but Saturday's 25-18 loss at Twickenham only served to expose the lack of depth in the squad.

"I've got concerns about that," Henry told the New Zealand Press Association.

"The trouble is you can't play them as much as you'd like to because you leave yourself vulnerable.

"So we've tried to mix and match as much as we can and we've got to continue to do that to develop the depth."

Rotation

The All Blacks won 10 of their 14 tests in 2009 despite regularly changing the starting side and Henry said he had no choice but to persist with the policy next year.

"It's called rotation and people don't like it, but it's the only way that we can develop a rugby side," said Henry.