Richie McCaw greeted by fans. Photo / Simon Baker

Richie McCaw greeted by fans. Photo / Simon Baker

The All Blacks have landed in New Zealand to huge crowds at Christchurch and Auckland airports but coach Graham Henry said the team is still hurting.

"And we'll be scarred for the rest of our lives after this particular 2007 Rugby World Cup," Henry said.

He said he was not surprised by the 1500 strong crowd at Christchurch and a further 300 at Auckland.

"This team deserves that and they're the best team in the world. I know they haven't won the world cup but they've won 42 out of 48 internationals over the last four years."

He said the team has talked about being proud of their achievements and holding their chins up.

"Ok we didn't win the Rugby World Cup but we gave it our best shot."

He said the team can't do much more than that and most New Zealanders are happy with that.

When asked if there was any likely announcement looming about his future, Henry said: "I'm just going to chill out and not make knee-jerk decisions," Henry said.

Joe Rokocoko said after the loss, the team felt on their own.

"The next morning I was thinking, sharks, we let the people down," Rokocoko said.

He said the team felt 300,000 times more gutted than the fans and the team have not discussed the result in depth.

"Not everyone wants to talk about it. Everyone is shocked," Rokocoko said.

He said the team had reservations about how the public would receive them before landing in Christchurch and Auckland.

In Auckland the crowd had an opportunity to warm up before the All Blacks came through the arrival gate.

Black Caps Daniel Vettori, Scott Styris and Lou Vincent walked through and were surprised by the applause.

Pierre Malan whose Grandmother spoke French but had no divided loyalty on Sunday morning, said he was there to show the team his support.

"It's a warm reception. It was one game out of four years. Graham has given us some fantastic rugby over the years and kept the heritage going," Malan said.

Some fans made a long journey to welcome the All Blacks home. Raewyn and son Grady McMahon had driven up from Putaruru.