Do you think Graham Henry should be sacked and if so why?

Question

I think Graham Henry has done wonderful job with the team..he knows the team best..It wasn't Graham Henry's fault they had a poor game.

Answer 1

Firstly, the NZ public are far to harsh. I think media are partly to blame for that. The rile us up about the small stuff. In the bigger picture, we did bloody well! We're still number one. Maybe if we didn't put so much focus on the World Cup and just concentrated on the game at hand, we'd be right. As for Graham Henry, we are way to quick to give someone the boot - with the exception of John Mitchell. But seriously, we go back to the drawing board with a new coach, why not consolidate what we do have and let Graham & Co. learn from what has happened.

Otherwise, I think we need to move on now anyway. We lost, it's over. Lets get stuck into our provincial game for once!

Answer 2

The Coach (G. Henry) and other decision making staff all need to get the boot, for the disastrous decisions  to keep top players from playing hard match rugby in the months leading up to the World Cup.

A very knowledgable friend of mine has been telling me for weeks that these men are professional Rugby players who are payed large sums of money to play rugby and should be able to step up week after week and earn their huge paycheck.

Regular top level games harden up rugby players and make them match fit.

Hard, match fit players don't get stupid injuries like we have seen with those who went through the so called recoditioning programme.

Match fit players do not run out of steam halfway through a game, like the A.B's seemed to against France.

Answer 3

we have both a good team and coach.in there last cup game it was bad luck and poor ref.what we should be doing now is thinking of the next team the all blacks will meet.and let them and there coach get on with it.the cup for NZ is over lets move on.Well done Graham and Well done to your whole team.

Answer 4

No way...... what 42/48 games played won! can anyone tell me another rugby team whom have done that in recent times??

We need to resign Henry till the end of the next world cup. thats one thing the NZRFU havent  tried (keeping a coach after a world cup defeat) look at the great teams of the world, most of them have long term coaches/managers. E.g Manchester United an Sir Alex Ferguson. Wayne Benett at the Broncos. The All Blacks need to keep Graham Henry on at all costs or i feel we will keep repeating the process and get knocked out of the world cup at HOME!

Answer 5

No!  But it's the way we NZers seem to operate.  The hierarchy love them when they win but all s*** hits the fan literally when they lose.  Perhaps we need a new NZRFU board who will take Coaches and Management on their merits not how many cups they put in the trophy cabinet.  Henry has done a great job of leading the ABs and rugby in general, he is a great mentor to other generations with his tactics and strategies.

*EDIT*

And he has been our most successful Coach in Rugby.

Answer 6

Henry should stay! He didnt miss the foward pass. nor did he sin bin luke!

Answer 7

Basically at the end of the day We lost in a quarterfinal and the result for the coaching staff will be thanks but no thanks, do not apply. It is said we have some of the best rugby coaches around but again we are in dreamland.

The coaches will pay with the lost of their jobs and that is the way of sport. the coach will always be blamed.

The NZRFU need to look at them selves too and the top three Hobbs,Moller & Tew wre all part of it.

By foccusing on the World Cup for four years rugby at the coalface has suffered.

I think the problem is bigger than we think and it is not just rugby. Our major sporting organisation SPARC needs to be looked at and right to the coalface.

All sports are suffering throughout New Zealand.

Anyway like a lot of you whether we won or lost I still had to go to work this morning (Monday)

Answer 8

NZ " the best team in the world" will not have won the WC in 24 years

thats why hes been sacked and rightly so

Answer 9

NO NO NO! He has done a great job and the only way forward is to let him feel the pain like the rest of us over the next four years, and then correct it in Auckland.

Frankly, if it wasn't for the d**k head refereeing the game we would be in the semis. I cannot believe that the interpretation of the ruck and mall rules could be so flagrantly abused. And a forward pass is a forward pass in any Nation. Why do they have touch judges if they don't use them.

Answer 10

Nah man not at all,whats that going to acheive?then well just be starting all over again and possibly get the same result,like he said "Thats the way sport is,you cant win them all".Hes done an awesome job except win the world cup,the NZRFU should just grow up,who cares if they spent 50 million,money cant buy the cup,i say leave him where he is and just build off that,sacking aint an option.

Answer 11

YES

Use his rotation policy. rotate John Mitchell and Robbie Deans back. and Henry rotate on this !!!!!

Answer 12

Yes. GH should be sacked. Bring on Robbie Deans.

GH had a number of great ideas yet he failed to see the simple solution the French found to the on-coming AB train. Yes the French out manoeuvred the AB's by the aerial route and the AB's had no answer. In addition to this they failed to convert on the opportunities they had.

The French even advised the AB's as to what they were going to do and nobody took notice.

Lastly - who cares about the result as it is only a game of rugby and I enjoyed watching it. Bit sad the AB's lost but that's life. Enjoy it.

Answer 13

He has already resigned.  Unfortunately there can only be one result in Rugby and no coach has ever been successfully recalled after a loss in the semi final let alone a quarter final loss.  That will include all his support staff.  The culling has begun and the bad news is there will be a tsunami of unprecedented proportions awaiting the All Blacks.  That is just the way it goes.  They are doing a comphrehensive review.  Coach: Graham Henry; Assistant Coach; Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith.

So I hope they all go home to face the bad news, unlike previous expeditions where they never returned until a later date or come back in drips and drabs.  This is New Zealand Rugby you have to expect the good with the bad.

Answer 14

Well I think he should be sacked.The conditioning programme made no difference and as for the tri nations we only just won them by a hair.

Henry has made no changes and he keeps going to has beens like Anton Oliver.I think the rugby players of today are injury prone and soft. Toughen up players and take money out of the game and they will play better.

Answer 15

No, I don't think Graham Henry should be sacked. But he did make some mistakes. The reconditioning programme was a good idea to give players a rest. But the players should have been playing in the Super 14 earlier and also in the Air New Zealand cup. The reason being, the draw for pool games did the All Blacks no favours. Also, I am not a fan of the rotation policy. The All Black jersey is there to be earned and players have to play consistently well to earn the right to keep wearing it. That should be sufficient motivationfor any player.

Answer 16

noo way should they sack henry!! youd think the lions tourn the grandslam the tri nations and the bledislode wud cancel out just 1 world cup! henry is no doubt 1 of the best rugby coaches ever! and thers a little saying that goes you have to lose 1 to win 1 but they never seem to give any coach another chance!

Answer 17

Henry has been an extremely good coach. The All Blacks have won so many games under him. He's fantastic at his job. In the end he can't jump on the feild and win the game for the players. The team chocked at crunch time yet again. They have done it before many times under different coaches, not just Henry. If they keep Henry the team will learn from this experience as a whole.

Answer 18

yes he should receive the same treatment john mitchell got.He had the most resources of any coach , the most players, the biggest support staff etc.He ruined super 14 for us taking those elite players out and it was for nothing.!!!He and Smith and Hansen should all go. But i see the boys got their golf handicaps down and the south of france was a lovely holiday spot!!!

Answer 19

Why do New Zealand get rid of the only people - who can really learn - and act on the lessons of these types of defeats?

Oh well maybe he and his coaching team can come over again...and teach wales them..

Answer 20

I long for the day's when teams went on proper tours, where they stayed anywhere up to eight weeks on end playing tests and provincial sides.

I'm becoming bored watching the same old s**+* every year whether it be S14 Tri Nations or 6 Nations.

Bring on proper tours I say, and ditch the media moguls.

Oh, and no to sacking GH, but as said already, he'll walk.

Answer 21

Graham should stay. The ref was a complete k**b!!!! It was an england - all blacks semi. We would have smoked them clowns and whoever in the final.

Answer 22

Hmm... Let's see. Graham Henri was appointed when John Mitchell was sacked. Now, why was Mitchell sacked? Not because of the poor performance at the Cup:

a) It was disappointing, but not poor - we weren't favourites in the first place, and we still reached the semis.The Aussie and the English teams were at their peak at the time.

b) The AB's had twice the passion the current team has

c) They had less talent, but so much flare - the unpredictability of Spencer, the dedication of Marshall, the quiet leadership of the Iceman, and team spirit. The AB's were the Harlem Globetrotters of rugby.

John Mitchell was sacked because he refused to talk to the media, refused interviews and turned down PR events. He was all about the job, the players admired him, the press hated him. The moment the team left for Australia, the media brought the daggers out, and John Mitchell was doomed.

Along came Graham Henri. Do you remember  the first thing he did the day he got the job? He went to the Paul Holmes show. The new media king was born. They all loved him, from Deaker to Holmes, the whole old guard, and the new one as well. And yet the king was naked. First he introduced the flat attacking line... the return of which we saw at the game in Cardiff. Then he tried to turn the AB's into the English team. Then the rotation policy, which never allowed to build the team spirit. Then the destruction of Super 14. And all that time he ruled the media, always available for interviews, always there, keeping his staff busy with PR activities... I saw Hansen at Thrive Auckland defending the rotation policy and couldn't believe my eyes...

Graham Henri should go. We have no need for media crowned kings. Bring Mitchell back, and the sooner the better.

Answer 23

Yes, because we need a coach who can prepare, trained, etc. the All Black team to win for the next World Cup.  He is a good coach but not even good enough to be counted as the all black didn't even make it to the semis.

Answer 24

if its anyone round here its the pommy ref that should be sacked