Graham Henry, fall on your sword

Mitch O, would you be able to elaborate more on why a number of ABs intensely disliked Deans? On the Lions tour, Henry didn't have a good rapport with a lot of the players, it seemed his management skills were limited to telling the players that he didn't think much of them....similar to what happened with Jerry Collins this year, when Henry basically told him the same thing...Collins might not have made the starting XV for the ABs, but he would have done a hell of a lot better job than Lauaki...Toulon are bloody lucky to have such a decent and down to earth bloke playing for them this year. I dont think it would have been either Carter or McCaw, otherwise they would have left the Crusaders to go to another province years ago? The guys record at the Crusaders is peerless, and I get the feeling the Wallabies are loving it playing under Deans, he has given Australian rugby a new shine...my only fear is that after the four years are up, some French club is going to offer him the island of Corsica to coach their side.

Nonsense Zolton. The AB's are in a rebuilding phase and the combined experience of the three wise men is just what is needed to take them forward. Deans was intensely disliked by a number of AB's during his previous tenure, something the NZRU hasn't forgotten, and nor should they. As for this 'sense of invincibility' various scribes bang on about, just what is it you're talking about? This average AB's side will do their best to beat this average Wallabies side this weekend, I doubt auras have much to do with a game of rugby, perhaps you're confusing rugby with dungeons and dragons?

Westy, You posted as I was writing so have just read your contribution about the lack of Rugby resources in Sydney’s west. I couldn't agree more. What a waste to fritter our nest egg from the 2003 RWC in such a profligate way without making a significant contribution or lasting legacy out there. Hopefully as OZ rebuilds and more funds become available this "oversight" can be addressed. I know it's wishful thinking but it's about time some of our major brands got involved with team Wallaby; forget about political donations - we always get the politicians we deserve anyway - and instead put it into our icon sporting brands such as Rugby. Then again perhaps the equivalent of some of those Nth Hemisphere billionaires who are helping fund Rugby could be found in OZ. Pity I'm not one otherwise I'd be at the coal face. Think of the good will and positive karma it would create towards them. Any takers out there?

Robbie Deans has attributed the current success of the Wallabies to the self-belief of the players. That would sound trite coming from other coaches, but with him, it is so profound. In times past, it has irked me and even angered me, when coaches would discuss players' plus and minuses so baldly with the press, cogitating so openly about their selection dilemmas. With one particular recent Wallabies coach, it must have been so soul-destroying. Then they wonder why the players play poorly. I remember even Bob Dwyer, as great a coach as he was, giving marks to individual players while being interviewed by the press. This embittered some of the players, so that in the aftermath of the 1995 World Cup campaign, he lost a lot of support, not just for his advocacy of the straightine attack. Now I religiously read the sports pages and watch tv interviews, waiting for a negative remark from Robbie Deans towards his players, especially after their error-prone first matches. To his credit, Robbie Deans has been most circumspect. No wonder the players have self-belief.

Great article Zoltan and most of the responses/comments in reply were on the mark. It now appears the Robbie Deans' era in OZ Rugby has finally been embraced by one and all here in Australia. OZ scored a great coup in being able to secure the services of Robbie Deans and Australian Rugby will be forever in debt to him. Spiro has written elsewhere and others have expanded on it, just what a thoroughly decent human being he is and how his very positive influence has been widespread, not only with the Crusaders but within the city of Christchurch itself. I believe bad karma has plagued the ABs for some time and it will take a thoroughly decent human being such as Robbie Deans to right their values and psyche. Hopefully we will be able to utilise his services for as long as he so decides. In the meantime let us enjoy the ride and continue to absorb everything he deems to teach us. Rugby will be the big winner.

Worlds Biggest ..............I share your optimism .......................but this is where my rugby breterin lose the plot. League's crowd figure s have never been good and especially at this time of year . July 2007 9500; about 12000two weeks ago; 15500 last week. League has over 21 full time development officers out here ; AFL has 12 and it will be increased to over 20 . Rugby has 2. League has juniors. Bluntly my observation is their junior mini and mod competitions are superior to rugby equivalent junior competitions in teaching basic rugby skiills . You need to use the good things about league and target your resources. You do not want league to lose its junior player base. At various points say 12/13 and 16/20 you want to attract the players. You need to understand you do not want league to lose its junior player base . If you do I warn you we will lose it to AFL or football. I do not think some rugby afficiadoes understand if all junior league went to Rugby in Western Sydney we could not offer teams let alone resources , coaches. training. Out here it is district clubs that are important not private schools. Wentworthville Leagues club is bigger than Eastwood, Penrith,Parramatta Rugby clubs put together than add in St Marys Leagues club, Mounties : Windsor before the heavyweights Parramatta and Penrith all with junior leagues . Rugby needs league to survive especially its very superior junior base. Rugby needs to then attract its best at a younger age.Rugby does not have these resources. If some biased rugby morons want to lose the Western Sydney than pray for league's demise. I get sick of this but telling people league out here and bluntly across the state gets voluntarily rather than at school gets more kids playing a heavy contact sport than rugby. It is simpler and safer no scrummaging atc. perfect for basic rugby skills.There registered junior player numbers are much higher than rugby .Then use it do not lose it. I for one never want to see league's demise .

We don't have the team to win the Tri-Nations this year. If we win at home next weekend, we might stand a chance of retaining the Bledisloe in the November Test. At least this is happening in 2008 and not 2010. We ought to set our sights on the end of year Grand Slam tour. Hopefully Henry rings in the changes like he did in 2004.

Sam What will be more painful for Henry and company is that when they assess, lost WC, Lost Tri N, lost BC. Well the last two not yet but maybe.

What will be more painful for Henry and company is that when they assess the possession advantage and the number of line breaks they made during the match they will wonder how they ended up so far on the wrong end of the scoreboard. The high tempo attacking game the All Blacks enjoy playing requires a lot of accuracy in the basics and even when they were at their peak they still committed a number of errors, the difference being then that they had a very good defensive screen, were dominant at the breakdown and could still comfortably outscore their opponents with tries. This year they still have the quality of players to score tries but they have major problems with their work at the breakdown and this has been evident in all their tests, there were too many forced and unforced errors and the cover defence isn't working. On top of this you can sense that the All Blacks mojo has been badly dented with these two losses and it's going to be not only a matter of correcting players techniques but also rebuilding their confidence in time to take on a resurgent Wallaby side. One can be fixed within a weeks time, I'm not too sure about the second. The All Blacks and Henry need to win the return match - or we could be looking at a repeat of 1998.

I agree with Rob regarding Dingo Deans influence across all levels is crucial to the game going forward. In Australia we are very top heavy in regards to the Wallabies performances. If the Wallabies lose / have a dismal World Cup the game is struggling however when the Wallabies win a big game or have a good WRC then it's all good for the time being. For rugby to thrive and compete with the other codes Deans influence flitering through can not be understated. Last night's win was a fantastic advertisment for the game. If the ARU are serious about growing the game in Sydney's West now is the time to get cracking. With NRL Crowds & TV ratings down plus the standard weekly off field behaviour issues the NRL image is getting belted. Obviously with Money Bill flying the coop League is vulnerable right now so rugby needs to take AFL's lead and have a crack out in the West.

It is strange how a few weeks change everything. After the AB loss to SA my feeling was 'Its an aberation, a bump in the road, they will come back stronger than ever" Now its a bit like "Can they get back on the bike". Having said that I am strangely not confident of a Wallaby win in Auckland. How many times has Australia beaten NZ in NZ? I looked up the last 10 years and it looks like 3 times and all prior to 2001, August 2001 being the last time. Another point to make about Deans is that although he seems a good bloke I dont believe he is Santa Clause. He has made it very clear to the players that no one is above being dropped and the players have absorbed that as well as his 'emotional intelligence" stuff. All of the coaches Andrew refers to (above) will drop a non performer without thinking twice about it. The thing that strikes me about him is his pragmatic straight forward approach. Like a lot of good managers, he can make the very complicated and scary seem very straight forward and 'do-able'. Our star rises again after 7 years in the complicated world of failure.

I enjoyed the game. Great spectacle. I noticed one thing about the back row defence of the All Blacks especially near the line. I have heard Less Kiss and Muggleton call it " Hit and Stick : there was not much sticking. Williams defence was awful.All arms and grope. One victory does not win a campaign, There is no need to name ..............but the hands of some All Blacks players was terrible.........even in there very technique of catching...........and the quality of centre replacements frankly is shallow. All Black pride has been dented. They will come back. It is not so much the aura that has been lost but NZ rugby's traditional depth. In some positions it is not there. Of any team that needed a quality centre to cover their frontline it was the All Blacks. We got Tahu . They are in trouble here.

Good article Zolton, and very much like the game last night NZ has no answers. If Henry falls on his sword (which I very much doubt given he had the opportunity to do so last year) will Hansen appeal as his successor given their association over the past four years. After all the NZRU still harboured some feelings against Deans given his association with John Mitchell in the past. Henry presented this coaching team as a package deal with the NZRU so if Henry goes, then so do the rest of them. Outside of this trio, the pickings are slim to none, Deans and Gatland are coaching other teams. Colin Cooper and Ian Foster haven't achieved much with their teams, Pat Lam is too inexperienced although he was touted as part of Deans coaching team if he got the All Blacks job. The mandate of the NZRU states that you have to be coaching within NZ for at least 12 months to be eligible for the All Blacks so you can also rule out any international candidates. Watching the test last night felt to me like watching the Crusaders play in gold jerseys against the Blues or Hurricanes in a Super 14 game. The Wallabies impressed me greatly with their composure and committment in defence and at the breakdown and really outplayed NZ despite the overwhelming advantage in possession NZ enjoyed. NZ really played like a group of individuals at times and not a team as used to be their hallmark, they were riddled with errors and none more so than Lauaki who made more impact for Australia coming off the bench than NZ. Carter shone like a lone beacon and was ably supported by Muliaina and Sivivatu in the backs and Braid struggled to impose himself on the game. The tight five did their job but it looks like the left hand isn't talking to the right hand at the moment with their structure and gameplan. I don't think it's time to hit the panic button yet but it's definitely backs against the wall time and the balance of power in world rugby has shifted to the other side of the Tasman. Australia are a team in the ascendancy while NZs progress has stalled at the moment after some strong performances in their first four tests. Perhaps those early results were deceiving about the quality of this NZ side. However a great game to watch although not the result I wanted and a great peformance by the men in gold. I do so love Bledisloe Cup matches above all others.

Sheek - couldn't agree more. The term for it today is "emotional intelligence". Wayne Bennett and Paul Roos have also displayed a high level of this.

Henry's walking on thin ice. The All Blacks' game plan was a dud from the kick off. They were headless chickens, trying to run the ball from everywhere instead of playing a territory game, creating a forward platform and working it through the backs. We could've had McCaw, Collins, anyone from Euirope, we still would've lost. We're not going to win Test matches playing that sort of rugby.

Cosmos, the All Blacks being a 'bunch of talented blokes who thought they could break the Wallaby line' - very very true, this was apparent in the Dunedin game v the Boks. Its clear Deans has melded a team together - your body is not your body, it belongs to your team mates. The continued inclusion of Sione Lauaki baffles me, for being a talented player, he is incredibly lazy. As an example of this, he jersey slung either Giteau or Barnes to the ground, showing his considerable strength, however he made no effort to follow up the tackle, the tackled player was off the ground quickly and was away. And Im sure OJ cringed when he say Lauaki charge towards the Wallaby line, ball in one hand, only for Peter Hynes to rip it out. Sums it up for the ABs. I was at Australia A v Maori, and I though Liam Messam did an outstanding job against what I considered an excellent Australia A backrow (one of our strengths). He is the sort of bloke you want in your side, not an outrageously talented by lazy player.

The chinese have a well known saying, "the journey of a 1000 miles starts with the first step". In other words, take care of the small detail, & the big picture will look after itself. Deans is amazing. Unlike so many business managers, he is not outcome obsessed. By developing the basic skills & encouraging his players to enjoy each stage of the journey, they are developing both as players & people at an extraordinary rate. If wannabe coaches attend his training sessions looking for an insight into his training drills, they will miss the point. They should instead focus on how he relates to everyone around him. There are plenty of books out there telling us how to be successful in different things. At the end of the day, they key is our ability to relate to each other.

It's interesting that you mention that there is a need to get the mana back. I thought that the main problem last night was that the coaching staff seemed to be relying on the squad having mongrel and foot skill - and they completely forgot to build an actual game plan. I think the All Blacks need to rely a bit less on individual brilliance and a bit more on strategy and planning - Henry seemed incapable of giving them this. All Blacks weren't a team out there - just a bunch of very talented blokes who all thought they could break the Wallaby line and score the winning try. That's one of the reasons they lost I think.

Without doubt Henry is living on borrowed time. What will be interesting is what Deans will do if the NZRU comes cap in hand and asks him to coach the AB's. After all - unlike players - Deans only has to give notice and he can walk away. By the measure of the man I would expect that he would honour his contract. Deans has a generosity of spirit that is admirable. He has invited coaches to Wallaby training sessions. I just hope that all levels of Australian rugby takes every opportunity to learn as much as we can from him. Deans will not be with us forever. There will come a time when he heads back to his roots. We are all be better off for knowing the man.

Agree with Rob's comment. After years of perservering with a donkey Australia now have a world class coach, and as importantly, a good bloke. How on earth did NZ let him go (but I'm so glad they did).