G.Henry redeemed from RWC07. Worked for England didn't it?

Question

Personally I believe Graham Henrys re-appointment as Allblacks coach is a refreshing and good decision that has been made.

If you think about it and have a look at his record before the RWC, the ABs won everything and rarely lost games. Yes they lost last year but I felt it was time for NZ to give a losing RWC coach a 2nd chance like England did...anyone remember that?

Lets look at the positive, in terms of % Henry has the best record going around. We love winning and cry like little babies when we lose (personally I don't). Keeping a winning coach who experienced the worst defeat of his career and the aftermath...and STILL experience it (going on 1 year later) is something we haven't really seen in NZ.

Clive Woodward coached England from about 97 to 04 and they crashed out of RWC 99 but won in 03 which gives me warm fuzzies inside when I think about a good coach (Henry) looking after a great team with a 2nd life.

Lets be positive and support the AB's! Now, GO DEBAT!

Answer 1

I agree totally! Finally someone else who has some confidence in Henry.

Ok we have now lost 2 in a row and the one to Robbie hurts! but to win a world cup I beleive we need to lose some games throughout the year(s) leading to the big event.

Come on Henry!

Answer 2

I agree with Roder T.

Reappointing Henry was the worst thing that had happened to NZ.

He is practically learnt nothing from his failure at the France WC.

After winning two games in a roll, he is back to the bad habit of using player in wrong position.

There is no time for trial and error and certainly not the right way to develop a team.

God help us this weekend.

Answer 3

I absolutely agree with you. I don't think we can expect the same winning record with all our best players now overseas.

And with every world cup we've lost that I can remember we've replaced the coach... only to lose the next world cup.

So I don't think getting rid of Henry is the right idea, who knows if we had had Deans we might all be lamenting him in the future.

The All Blacks at the moment just have too many problems to think about, and if you take a serious and fair look at the situation I think you would be able to notice that we're not doing as well as Australia or South africa in terms of world class players left over from last year... best players being McCaw, Carter, Woodcock... the list doesnt really stand up to South Africa. And some of the new replacements aren't that good either... Adam Thomson clearly isn't in Jerry Colin's league yet, and neither Wulf or Tuitivake come close to either Howlett or Rokocoko. So just give it a rest and give it some time.

Answer 4

Graham Henry was not re appointed because he was the best coach. The old boys club at the NZRFU felt that if they fired him, it looked like they made the wrong decison in appointing him in the first place. So they re-appointed him and let go NZ most publicly respected coach Robbie Deans.

Whats more Henry has 2 years and will not get renewed leaving only 18 months for the new abs coach to get ready for RWC 2011. Mean while Dingo Robbie would have had 4 years with the wallibies.

I think the NZRFU is making all the decisions and getting none of the flak as they are behind closed (sealed) doors.

Answer 5

Rubbish. Henry is no Woodward. He started off fast with Wales, the Lions and now the ABs and he is always found wanting. He won't be in the job end of 09.

Answer 6

I agree they shouldn't just change the coach every 4 years when they lose the world cup, but I also agree with Tom, why couldn't they have kept John Mitchell???  He was much more worthy of a second chance than Graeme Henry.

In saying that, I also know that not much can be done about it now and I will support Graeme Henry and the ABs all the way.

It will be interesting to see whether they keep Graeme Henry on after his 2 years is up, and yea I would be worried that a new coach would only have a short time to prepare for the world cup.  So if they drop Henry, who do you think would be his replacement? Smith?

Answer 7

Your an idiot mate. No point even arguing with this because it's pathetic!

Answer 8

I agree...and as there isn't a single coach left in New Zealand who could do the job - and who isn't contracted to someone else... whether I am right or not is besides the point.

Answer 9

What happens if he hands the Wallabies a hiding this weekend? Will the hate dissipate a little?  

Would the NZRU replace him after two years with two to the World Cup?  Not really that fair in the incoming coach (unless it was Smith ;-) )  

Answer 10

All the games our AB played last season were against second rate or teams coming to NZ understrength ie England, France Ireland etc. (Who can blame European players after a much harder season than here). Maybe if the same offer was made to John Mitchell then yes I agree he should have been offered a second chance. However a broken coach deserting Wales taking over a well tuned  ABs,team time will provide the  poor result. Look if AB lost more of their matches against good strong teams then won the World Cup I would be more than delighted. But not with the present coach. It just will not happen.

Answer 11

My opinion of the 46 games won under Henry, is that over 60% of these wins were against teams of very average quality. eg Fiji, Ireland, Scot, Wales, Argentina, Italy, Romania, Canada & Portugal (who gave the blacks a h**l of a fight) Hardly frightening stuff is it. Lets not forget wins against the visiting French & Poms oophs I mean their 3rd xv. The Lions 04 were among the worst  Lions team to ever come here. The 71 & 77 Lions would have killed these guys.

Even NZ Maori beat most of these guys!  

In my book Henry was and remains a very average coach His  

record I agree is impressive based on his % but one needs to look between the lines.

Henry makes a habit of stating out with a hiss & a roar that over time, ultimately lead to failure at key objectives. eg



Wales -The Great Redeemer  

Lions  - Test series loss against the Aussies

Blacks - World Cup

Henry refreshing ! .............. yeah right

Answer 12

Agree with you.How can a coach learn from his mistakes if he isnt given a 2nd chance?

Choosing a coach every four years hasn't helped us has it.Behind G.H. all the way.

Answer 13

oh yeah and remember we were probably 30 points better than any other team at that world cup yet lost. Are you saying that it is a good thing to select a team that has never played together once during the year for the world cup quarterfinal? And are you saying our top players had enough rugby during 2007 to be at the top of their games? Another couple of questions about this year, is Adam Thompson better than Kieran Read? Jimmy Cowan better than Piri Weepu? Is Jerome Kaino a better number 9 than number 6 and is soaolo better number 6 than number 8? ( although they have finally admitted this ludicrous plan was wrong) and these are only a couple of issues I have picked out. To support Henry is a joke mate, he has managed to single handedly devalue tha All Black jersey to the point that our top players can't even bother hanging around now!