Henry happy with All Blacks tour
By NZPA, 9 Dec 2009 NZPA is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Graham Henry, Rugby Union
Five rugby Test wins and a strengthened team culture has left All Blacks coach Graham Henry a happy man at the end of the northern hemisphere tour.
The All Blacks arrived back in Auckland on Tuesday to a low-key reception, with as many media present as there were members of the public.
Those fans who were present took full opportunity to get as many photos as possible with the players, who were obliging but in some cases looked weary at the end of their flight from London and keen to get home.
Henry said the loss to a Springbok-dominated Barbarians team did not put a dampener on a tour which saw victories over Australia, Wales, Italy, England and France.
“We won five Test matches out of the five Test matches, and if we’d said that before we left we would have been delighted with that, so we achieved what we wanted to achieve,” he said.
Henry said the 39-12 victory over France in one of the most open running matches of the season was particularly pleasing.
“It takes two teams to do that. They both wanted to scrum, both wanted to use the ball at the breakdown, both wanted to turn the pill over and use the ball in their hands, so that’s a hell of a good criteria for a top rugby game, so France deserve a lot of credit,” he said.
“We got a big thrill out of it too because we’d been knocking on the door for a while and we just got the confidence and got a couple of good early tries and the boys expressed themselves.
“That would be one of the best test matches this group of coaches has been involved in so it was very pleasing.”
Just as important to Henry was what he said was a strengthened culture within the team off the field.
“There was a lot of unity. We had a lot of people who couldn’t play during the year who came back, and we had some new players who joined the tour, and new blood actually adds a bit of energy.”
Henry rated the season which included four Test losses – three of which were to South Africa – as a good one and he was pleased with the improvement during the year.
“We’re probably about 70 percent there,” he said.
“We had players out with injury (earlier in the year) and we were trying to win games without the experienced backbone there, and that’s good experience for the guys who are actually playing, there’s a lot of pressure on them.
“Once the team gelled again and most of the senior players were playing together again and had some time together, it started to get better.”
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johnno42 said | December 9th 2009 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
and why wouldn’t he be?? his boys won all their test matches, ok, they went down to a (good) barbarians side in a festival match, but he had always said he was going to give the fringe players a run… and it wasn’t a test. Sure the knockers can take respite from a defeat, “if thats what floats your boat, suck it up”.
Dingbat said | December 9th 2009 @ 11:05pm | Report comment
Pothale, this is for you:
In an interview on the rbs6nations website, Mallett described the Six Nations’ teams performances in the year-end Tests as “disappointing”.
It was pointed out that France and Ireland won against a “weary South Africa team”, while he was also dismissive of Scotland’s one-point win over Australia.
And Mallett, who is one of only a handful of coaches to have taken charge in both the Tri-Nations and Six Nations, highlights the fact that France are the only Northern Hemisphere team to have won on southern soil in six years as a damning indictment of European rugby.
“I think the gap between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere remains pretty wide,” Mallett said.
“The day Northern Hemisphere teams stop going down South and losing every Test by at least 20-30 points and start winning on their own soil, is the day I will revise my opinion.
“If you look at the Tri-Nations, the physicality is on a level that is way above the Northern Hemisphere.”
pothale said | December 10th 2009 @ 12:08am | Report comment
Why is it for me, Dingbat?
Is it an excuse for why Ireland and France won against SA because the poor dears were ‘weary’? I seem to recall that if NH teams say the same thing when they play down south, they get pilloried for offering up poor excuses.
I don’t disagree with the basic point that NH teams should be winning more regularly on tours down South. I think Mallet’s assessment that currently NH teams are losing every Test by at least 20-30 points is inaccurate and probably more reflects Italy’s results in recent years.
He spoke in generalisms about the NH teams. In any commentary that I’ve seen – North and South – either France are noted as an exception cos they beat the Boks at home and the ABs away or else Ireland for remaining undefeated for 2009, drawing with Australia as a rusty side, and defeating the Boks (weary or not).
At times, it seems, that you cannot win, no matter the results. There’s always reasons and opinions as to why people think otherwise.
But I’ll be the first to say that Ireland’s next big task outside of competing well in the 6 Nations (and ideally winning it) is to tour next June and win one of the two games against Australia and win against New Zealand. That should be their objective, and I think Kidney and his players will want to achieve that, as opposed to starting thinking about the beach after the league and cup is over in May. They’ve also arranged four matches for next Autumn (to include the stadium opener for Landsdowne against SA) and that fits with the programme of development and winning pattern they have to accomplish. If they lose any of those games, they may as well not travel to the World Cup. And I think other NH teams should do likewise. Why celebrate a competition of mediocrity or one-sided supremacy between the SANZAR teams?