"I expect South Africa to be more competitive next week," Henry said after the All Blacks' 19-8 test win in the first Tri-Nations test of the season.
"I was pleased with our win but it has given them fire in their belly to play at the top of their game.
"South Africa is the biggest test we play each year. It brings out the best in both teams.
"They are the world champions. We always respect South Africa so I was very pleased with our win."
Henry heaped praise on his team that had played without its captain Richie McCaw, who is on the injured list.
"We have an inexperienced side without the captain," Henry said. "They displayed character and were superbly led by Rodney So'oialo."
Assistant coach Wayne Smith said that the All Blacks won the tactical kicking battle.
"We do a lot of work on every opponent to work out where the kicking will be most effective," Smith said. "We looked to where the space was."
Smith felt that the non-awarding of the try to No 8 Jerome Kaino when he followed up a Daniel Carter kick highlighted where another phase of technology could go in the game.
"We need to look at using technology to rule in cases like this," he said.
Smith was impressed by the South African defensive structure.
"They are fast on the breakout from broken play," he said. "That is one of the things we must overcome before next week."
Smith said that wing Sitiveni Sivivatu left the field early because of a bruised shoulder.
Springbok captain John Smit said that the All Blacks defended well and kicked better than his team.
"We gave Dan Carter too much space to kick into," he said. "We must also be more patient and composed when we have the ball in conditions like tonight.
"We have a lot more left in us and will have another crack next week. I'm disappointed we didn't bring it all out today.
"We should have at least got a bonus point.
"We had a lot of inaccuracies and I think we played as poorly as we can in a Tri-Nations game. We can only get better.
"The All Blacks deserved to win because they kicked better than us."
Smith suffered a groin injury when he was injured by a hard tackle from All Black lock Brad Thorn and is in doubt for the test at Carisbrook.
