Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills says he cannot fathom why Graham Henry is so unpopular in his homeland despite his impressive win/loss ratio as All Black coach.
When his contract as All Blacks coach was extended recently up to the 2011 World Cup, Graham Henry had steered New Zealand teams to victories in 57 out of the 66 matches in which he was in charge. That is a success ratio of 86.36 per cent. Last Saturday’s 22-16 victory over Australia at Eden Park, Auckland, edged that figure up to 86.56 per cent.
I can tell you that any country in the world would risk life and death in the rush to sign up a coach with that win ratio. But in New Zealand, some continue to sneer and for the life of me, I cannot understand why.
New Zealanders are obsessed with winning the Rugby World Cup. They haven’t done so since 1987 and their nerves are already half shredded at the prospect of mucking it up again, in 2011, especially as the tournament will be held in New Zealand.
But you can’t spend your whole working life focusing on some event two, three or four years away. What are those people saying? Are they suggesting that if the All Blacks lost every game under Henry between now and 2011 but won the World Cup, that would be OK? I find that argument banal.
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