All Blacks Coach
The Lynch mobs will be out in force today braying over the re-appointment of Graham Henry as the All Blacks coach. I wonder...could the reason we havn't won the world cup since 1987 is the fact we've never taken the same world cup coach to a consecutive cup tournament?
There are a lot of things we all can agree on that Henry does well, and I'm sure, he sucked at. Personally, I don't think many of the high ranked All Black players benefitted from the reconditioning programme and spent too much time out of rugby at any domestic or Super level to really have a grasp on the game.
At the 2007 cup Pool play to us meant nothing and pretty much, we played that way. But then it came to the real rugby playing nations, France, England, Argentina, South Africa and Australia, we had nothing. To me its the same in Basketball and the USA's dominance of the game during the 80's and 90's.
We have to watch out though, because in the South African and French tests here in New Zealand and during the Tri-Nations the Boks and the Frogs send B-Grade teams. Teams that for the most part never saw action during the World Cup when it mattered. Its a tactic I would employ. Send my second string to face the All Blacks, get the bloody noses and in the mean time, keep my A string in reserve at home to prepare and waltz over the world at the Cup.
This time though, Henry has two years to bring some Mana back to the men in Black. If he does, then I think he will take the team to the next cup. A 42-6 record in 4 years is nothing to sniff at. 87.5% wins.
Time will tell. I say just let him get to work to repair something in New Zealand sports, because at this stage I don't think we can get our cricketers to do it.
There are a lot of things we all can agree on that Henry does well, and I'm sure, he sucked at. Personally, I don't think many of the high ranked All Black players benefitted from the reconditioning programme and spent too much time out of rugby at any domestic or Super level to really have a grasp on the game.
At the 2007 cup Pool play to us meant nothing and pretty much, we played that way. But then it came to the real rugby playing nations, France, England, Argentina, South Africa and Australia, we had nothing. To me its the same in Basketball and the USA's dominance of the game during the 80's and 90's.
We have to watch out though, because in the South African and French tests here in New Zealand and during the Tri-Nations the Boks and the Frogs send B-Grade teams. Teams that for the most part never saw action during the World Cup when it mattered. Its a tactic I would employ. Send my second string to face the All Blacks, get the bloody noses and in the mean time, keep my A string in reserve at home to prepare and waltz over the world at the Cup.
This time though, Henry has two years to bring some Mana back to the men in Black. If he does, then I think he will take the team to the next cup. A 42-6 record in 4 years is nothing to sniff at. 87.5% wins.
Time will tell. I say just let him get to work to repair something in New Zealand sports, because at this stage I don't think we can get our cricketers to do it.
posted by Wiremu Bayliss at
11:23 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home