News

Henry relieved by improvements

May 21 2008

All Blacks coach Graham Henry has expressed his relief at the rise in the standard of Super 14 rugby in the second half of the competition.

Henry was happy to see New Zealand teams adapting to the Experimental Law Variations and playing with more structure after six weeks of what he described as shapeless rugby.

With an All Black training group set to be announced on Sunday, Henry and his assistant coaches Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, are in the final stages of the selection process for team to face Ireland and England in June before attempting to defend their Tri-Nations crown.

The re-appointed coach was visibly pleased with what he saw in last Friday's final-round match between the Blues and Hurricanes in Auckland, which he described as "like a test match".

Similarly, Henry was impressed with Crusaders-Blues match three weeks earlier, which was a major step up from the standard of play seen earlier in the season as most teams came to grips with the ELVs.

"The game has a lot more shape now than it initially had," Henry told NZPA.

"We were worried about the amount of turnover ball we saw, teams were going backwards and forwards without any sort of structure. We didn't see any territorial pressure and continuity."

The area of the game where the leading teams had improved most was at the tackle, where they had learned to retain possession.

"Teams are making sure they look after the ball there and are building pressure through continuity," Henry said.

"The referees are also refereeing that part of the game a lot better than they were six weeks or two months ago."

Henry was sure high standards would continue in Saturday's semi-final between the Crusaders and Hurricanes in Christchurch.

The match is crucial for some players seeking to force their way into Henry's 26-man squad for next month's tests.

"It's huge. It's the two strongest New Zealand sides as far as where they got to on the table so it it's like a test trial I guess, which is good for us," he said.

"There's no doubt this game will be helpful, hopefully to reinforce what we're thinking."

Henry said he had, as usual, watched a massive amount of rugby in an exhaustive selection process and that the "vast majority" of his squad had been decided on.

"But nothing's in concrete."

Henry's squad will be named on June 1, a day after the Super 14 final and six days out from the Ireland test at Wellington.

This Sunday Henry will announce a group of players to attend a 2-3 day training camp in Auckland next week designed to get the bulk of his squad ready for the test season.

The camp will be without players from either the Crusaders or Hurricanes, depending on who makes the final, while not every player at the camp will be squeezed into his Test squad.