The All Blacks have achieved a blackwash of the British and Irish Lions series after a 38-19 win in the third test at Eden Park on Saturday night.

The All Blacks were clearly the better side over the series and while they admitted it was their worst performance of the three tests they were still comfortably superior to the Lions.

"It is very pleasing to win the series 3-0," coach Graham Henry said after the match. "I think we played some very good rugby, particularly in the first two test matches. To score five tries to one tonight was pleasing but it wasn't as good a game of rugby as the other two."

Henry made fun of the Lions' inability to score tries, they were outscored 12 tries to three in the series, pointing out the fact that in the 2001 Lions tour against Australia when he was Lions coach both sides scored seven tries and both teams played good rugby - clearly a dig at the style played by the Lions under Clive Woodward.

The All Blacks had two players sinbinned but the Lions were still unable to take any advantage of the extra player, in fact when captain Tana Umaga was sinbinned early in the match it sparked the Kiwi side into life.

"It's disappointing the captain being sinbinned and letting our team down to 14 men but maybe at that stage really started to focus themselves, as does happen when you're down to 14 men. We scored 14 points so we obviously don't need me much," Umaga suggested.

Umaga was a top performer for the 70 minutes he was on the field with strong defence and two tries, and has been a great leader throughout the series.

"I'd also like to compliment the skipper Tana Umaga, who I thought was the player of the series, played an outstanding game again today," Henry said of the dread-headed leader.

Both Henry and Umaga believes the Lions series is something special and a concept that must continue and Umaga felt being a part of it helped lift him to play some of his best rugby.

"I know that's what lifted me to play as well as I did," Umaga said. "We put it as the second biggest thing after the World Cup for us."

The success in the series gave the All Blacks captain a lot of pleasure and he is very happy with where the current side is at and how they are developing.

"We're very happy with how it ended. It's all the culmination of a lot of work," the captain stated.

"There was a lot of pressure on us going into this series and we worked through it and we stuck together and I think that was the best thing for me, we just became tighter as a unit.

"We have great depth now and we've still got to develop that, but we're still a happy bunch and we look forward to our next challenge."

Some of the depth was shown in the third test with Luke McAlister debuting in the number 10 jersey, while the loose forwards and midfield also performed strongly despite the absence of Richie McCaw and Aaron Mauger.

"To come in and do what he did tonight was quite special," Henry said of McAlister's debut, which improved as the match went on. "Especially after the way Daniel played last week, and to kick the goals as well. I thought he had a special game and that's great for the future."

McAlister kicked six from six and he had the confidence to try a lot through the game, especially with different kicks, though he may have kicked too much on the night. His defence was solid and he grew as the test progressed to show he will feature again in the black jersey.

Whether he will feature in the Tri Nations may be revealed on Sunday morning when the All Blacks name their squad for what could prove to be a tougher challenge than the Lions.