All Blacks coaches prove they deserved a chance

OPINION: Some of the wisest people in this world abide by the adage that when one is wrong, one should promptly admit it.

The key word is promptly. In my case, promptly must mean three years. That's how long it's taken to become convinced it was wrong to write off Graham Henry and his coaching team after that World Cup quarterfinal calamity in Cardiff.

As depression descended on New Zealand, a massive knee-jerk reaction erupted. And I was the jerk with the wonky knee who called for Henry and his coaching cohorts to quit.

A friend who has coached at international level in the summer sports arena told me I was wrong. All coaches, he insisted, deserve a shot at redemption.

But that's not always been the New Zealand rugby way.

Many of us remained Henry sceptics. Could an oldish dog learn new tricks? Shouldn't we have started with a clean slate? Given the huge weight of public expectation around the All Blacks, would it be impossible for a coaching team to recover from the bitter disappointment of 2007?

Robbie Deans – a better coach than Australia's recent results indicate – may well have also driven the All Blacks to new heights. We will never know. But there is much to admire in the way Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen have rebuilt their team after the inevitable exodus since the last World Cup.

It's sobering to note only five of the team which will line up in Melbourne tonight played in that fateful match against the French in '07. Only Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Mils Muliaina, Joe Rokocoko and Tony Woodcock survive.

Based on present form and fitness, the All Blacks may retain fewer than half their 30-man squad from 2007 for next year's World Cup in New Zealand. That's quite a turnover considering only four of the 2007 cohort were over 30 years old.

Once the coaches ran the gauntlet of public and press opinion and were reappointed to their roles, they just got on with business.

They won 14 out of 15 matches in 2008 but last year sustained four losses – three to South Africa and one at home to France – while match winner Dan Carter was injured. But it's this year that the fruits of their labours have really been appreciated. The national team has now won 29 of their 34 tests since the World Cup.

That run ranks the present group close to Fred Allen's team of the late 1960s, Alex Wyllie's in the late '80s and (let's hope this isn't the kiss of death) John Mitchell's just prior to the 2003 World Cup. Let's not forget, too, that Allen's and Wyllie's groups didn't have to play six Tri-Nations tests – the toughest rugby of all – every year.

It could be argued that the current All Blacks aren't yet as talented, individually, as the last World Cup group. But they're proving immensely effective as a team with a commendable willingness to work tirelessly for each other.

Just as the New Zealand Rugby Union showed faith in the coaches, the coaches have shown faith in certain players. They persisted with the promise of Kieran Read at No8 and are now reaping the rewards as the former flanker delivers a dynamism and skill set missing in the last-man-down role since the great Zinzan Brooke.

Three years ago, gifted Hurricanes Ma'a Nonu and Piri Weepu were on the All Blacks outer. Few observing the 2006 northern tour will forget Father Ted having his avuncular, heart-to-heart chat with Weepu on a park bench amid the leafy splendour of Stade Francaise's Paris training ground in 2006.

Neither Nonu or Weepu were wanted for the World Cup. Yet, somehow, they were persuaded to stay in New Zealand.

Now, they look much more mature men, on and off the field, in the prime of their careers. All power to the gaffer for giving them another chance.

Older incumbents, Muliaina and Woodcock included, have felt the hot breath of young, hungry hombres like Israel Dagg and Ben Franks on their necks and are all the better for it.

The whole All Blacks management team deserves credit for their careful husbandry of injuries to Nonu and lock Tom Donnelly. So much for match fitness. That pair are playing out of their skins despite a limited diet of top rugby.

Henry, Hansen and Smith are, surely, savvier coaches and man managers now for all the travails of Cardiff. They've had some fortune on their side – the breakdown rule changes suit the All Blacks' style more than they do most major rugby nations. But they have shown their smarts by adapting adroitly to the opportunities on attack the new rules afford.

The All Blacks are playing a breathtaking brand of rugby and drawing back those of us who had become disenchanted at the stop-start, defence-orientated state of the sport.

I feared the Tri-Nations would be a major letdown after the high of watching the All Whites at the football World Cup. But the first three tests were absolute crackers and one suspects the All Blacks are far from their peak yet.

Henry, at 64, is debunking the myth that international sports coaches have a use-by date. There is simply no substitute for experience. Henry has been coaching for 35 years – most of the last decade at international level although he kicked off his career in the schoolyard.

Smith and Hansen have been going around at top pro level since 1997. All three have had valuable experience in Europe.

There is a compelling rugby precedent for giving chastened coaches a second chance. English rugby fans wanted Clive Woodward punted after their quarterfinal exit at home in the 1999 cap. But he stayed – and so did the bulk of his pack, derided abroad as Dad's Army. The result: "old" soldier Martin Johnson lifted the Webb Ellis trophy as World Cup champions in 2003.

- © Fairfax NZ News