Henry talks up ‘strong’ Ireland as threat to Grand Slam aspirations

THERE they sat, side by side, two of the game’s most influential people, one a coach who has survived savage criticism in the wake of his team’s World Cup failure, the other an awesome open side wing-forward, set to join the pantheon of the game’s greatest ever number sevens.

Graham Henry invariably looks like your archetypal New Zealander — taciturn, unsmiling, unlikely to say something that might indicate a brighter side to his psyche. But he knows his job better than most and after the World Cup disappointment in France, hung on to the job and celebrated by retaining the Tri-Nations during the summer.

Even then though, they lost matches to both Australia and South Africa, so it would be incorrect to say everything is well between Henry and New Zealand’s fanatical and highly knowledgeable supporters.

Whether he likes it or not, this trip to the Northern Hemisphere has been dubbed “the Grand Slam Tour” and you have to suspect if they don’t pull it off, the vultures will be circling again. Henry and his illustrious captain Richie McCaw made their final appearance before the assembled media yesterday morning after the captain’s run at Croke Park. They were courteous, to the point and clearly very, very focused. They also seemed to be in very good heart.

McCaw agreed that “Croke Park is a pretty impressive stadium and the guys are looking forward to it. We had a brief chat about the stadium and its history and I feel a bit of an edge in the team and, yeah, we’re certainly looking forward to it”.

“Edge” is a word frequently used by the All Blacks and their media when talking about team attitude and Henry proved himself no exception yesterday when stating that “there is always edge before a rugby Test and there is probably more edge this time because of the significance of the game. “Ireland are a very strong side, we’re playing at a venue which is very historic, I think it’s quite emotional and while you need to control those emotions, I did walk up into the terraces and I think that’s hugely significant. You need to think what it’s all about and I think it’s a privilege for the All Blacks to play there.”

Given that Henry has picked his strongest possible side for today’s game as distinct from Scotland last week, that surely indicates that he sees Ireland as a formidable threat to his “Grand Slam ambitions”.

“We respect Ireland and recognise that they have a very good squad so we have selected our side accordingly. We haven’t played England or Wales yet but we think the Irish have some players who can make significant inroads in this game. They toured well and played exceptionally well in Wellington and in Sydney against the Australians and were unlucky not to win that night.”

Henry smiles at a description of Declan Kidney as a “new coach”. He retorts by stating that “Declan has coached Munster successfully for quite a while and I have seen Munster play. I believe they will play a similar style and that they’ll play up to the very best of their ability and hopefully we’re good enough to handle it”.

Henry also revealed he won’t announce his team to play Munster at Thomond Park on Tuesday next until after the Test match.

“The squad for that game is training at another venue in Dublin as we speak and we haven’t encroached on the Test 22,” said Henry. “We’re training on Sunday before we leave here to go to Limerick. That’s another significant game but let’s put this one to bed first.”