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The All Blacks’ World Cup winning coach Graham Henry is eyeing off England’s Director of Rugby job, or something similar. Although he made it quite clear he wasn’t after Martin Johnson’s job as head coach.
Interviewed by the London-based Daily Telegraph, Henry gave every indication his days of All Black coach are almost over.
He’ll take the men-in-black on their annual end-of-year tour to the northern hemisphere, then look for greener pastures.
And Henry has a great affinity with the English 15-man code. After all, Twickenham is the universally recognised home of rugby.
“I will talk to the RFU, sure.”
“I couldn’t just not do anything. I would love to work in coach development, playing development, and cultural development of a group of people. I’m passionate about that”.
Which begs the question, why not do exactly the same with New Zealand rugby, where he has the most passion?
Simple answer: too much of the same, there are more difficult fields to conquer.
And he has the form to ask for any job he chooses. His international CV is staggering.
Henry’s coached the All Blacks in 103 internationals for 88 wins from 2004 to 2011 – a success rate of 85.4%.
That’s by far the most internationals and most successful of all coaches since the code turned professional in 1996.
Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen’s been the next most successful. From 1997 to 2001, Macqueen coached 43 internationals for 34 wins – 79.1%.
England’s Sir Clive Woodward is third on the pecking order. From 1997 to 2004, he coached 83 internationals for 59 wins – 71.1%.
Needless to say, all three have won the RWC: Macqueen in 1999 and Sir Clive in 2003.
Henry’s record at home also leads the way with a 94.1% success rate, Macqueen 86.4%, and Sir Clive 82.6%. And away with Henry’s 77.5%, Macqueen’s 64.7%, and Sir Clive 55.6%.
But that’s it for the 65-year-old Henry after the spring tour, who still has boundless energy.
Standing in his way at the RFU will be Rob Andrew (48), one of England’s fly-half legends and favourite sons, who was appointed Rugby’s Operations Director in April this year.
Andrews’ brief until 2015 of player, coaching, and referee development, among a myriad of other responsibilities, makes it a clear clash with Henry’s chosen career path.
But Henry, 17 years older and more experienced, has the drop on Andrews with player discipline.
England’s squad made too many of the wrong headlines off-field during the recent RWC, leaving Andrews and Johnson with egg on their faces. Henry has stricter control than that over his All Blacks off-field, a discipline that translates to on-field success.
This is best shown by his treatment of Cory Jane and Israel Dagg when they were caught drinking at 3am in an Auckland bar before the Wallaby semi.
After a dressing down, Henry said to them: “Now prove I did the right thing by not cutting you loose”.
Both Jane and Dagg turned in blinders.
And Henry has the happy knack of selecting “horses for courses”. Fly-half Stephen Donald was dead in the water after being dropped following the 26-24 loss to the Wallabies in Hong Kong last year.
But when Henry was faced with a fly-half injury dilemma, Donald was fourth choice but played in the final. His long-range pressure penalty was the telling factor in the nail-biting 8-7 victory over France to capture the elusive RWC.
Watch this space. A lot will be written and spoken of Graham Henry over the next few months, including his knighthood, that will be right in the “mayor’s office” at Twickenham.