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Henry concedes his RWC errors

Thursday 17th April 2008

Grilled: All Black coach Graham Henry

It has now been six months since that black night in Cardiff and the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) has released its review on Thursday justifying the premature World Cup exit.

The independent review of the last World Cup campaign says the NZRU over-emphasised the importance of winning the trophy and future planning should be more low key.

The review also says the All Black management team was too big.

It was conducted by sports administrator Don Tricker and lawyer Mike Heron, who were not required to specifically consider the quarter-final loss to France in Cardiff.

But they say the performances of the referee and touch judges contributed, along with an unusual combination of injuries and the failure of leading players to make the right decisions at critical times.

All Blacks coach Graham Henry refused to back the review's comments that the match officiating was part of the fault and said the French needed credit for playing better than they had for some time.

The report though is surprisingly frank in several areas but it was the reconditioning of the key squad members in the initial stages of the Super 14 that came most under scrutiny and Henry conceded that it was an error.

The NZRU, at Henry's request, removed 22 players from the first half of the 2007 Super 14 competition to work on their fitness before the World Cup.

While this did increase the players' athleticism, it was not well managed and a lack of communication between the NZRU and Super 14 teams was highlighted in the 47-page report.

"I underestimated that impact (on New Zealand rugby), quite frankly," Henry told reporters on Thursday.

"Obviously that's a mistake - how it was implemented and when it was implemented.

"We've got to find ways that that doesn't happen in the future.

"(But) this report says conditioning is imperative. It's just fitting it in, making sure that we implement it correctly."

Additionally the report highlighted a lack of effective game time, limited consultation and poor reintroduction of players as reasons contributing to the defeat in Cardiff.

The report failed though to emphasis who should be accountable for the failings but NZRU Chairman Jock Hobbs took the blame on the chin.

"Clearly we made mistakes and we acknowledge them," he said.

"We are very sorry we failed in Cardiff and are sorry at the disappointment and frustration it has caused supporters and fans."

Yet despite reconditioning been highlighted as a contributing factor to the World Cup failings - over the whole process - no one within the NZRU has been liable.

Hobbs though recognised this and in retrospect would have gone about it differently.

"The board at that time when asked to make a decision with respect to it, made a brave decision and one at the time which seemed right, but in hindsight it was clearly wrong and we accept that," Hobbs conceded.

The report some what surprisingly analyses the Cardiff game in full detail despite the reviewers not being asked to go into depth.

It said the coaches acknowledged not enough work was done on drop-goals.

It also explained with ten minutes to play the coaches sent out a drop-goal order but the players stuck with attacking tactics and it emphasised the team's leadership model failed on the field.

As a result the leadership of Richie McCaw has come under fire.

Many critics believe that his decision making wasn't ruthless enough and a drop-goal should have been attempted in the closing moments of the encounter but his coach was quick to defend his captain.

"Carl Hayman got the message about the drop-goal and talked to Richie," said Henry.

"Richie thought about that message he made a decision on the field at the time to do what's been successful in the past, that's his leadership, that's what he decided."

Several parts of the report were deleted because aspects were apparently commercially and team sensitive.

The review does though successfully reinforce concerns over players struggling to keep up with physical demands over a ten-month season.

It also said off-field planning and preparation was exemplary, with no distractions or barriers to performance and should be continued.