Alan Watkins: Henry leaves Wales infected with Kiwi disease

Six Nations

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Alan Watkins: Henry leaves Wales infected with Kiwi disease

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Among my errors lately was to suppose that the Welsh Rugby Union could not afford to get rid of the national coach, Graham Henry, because it was so poor and he was paid so much. That was what I wrote last week. But I was not entirely mistaken; or so it appears for Henry walked before he was pushed, so disappointed was he with his charges' performance against Ireland. He also thought he was not the coach he had been.

This lack of confidence in his own abilities seems to go back to the Lions' tour of Australia last summer, from which so much has flowed, most of it deleterious. Certainly, Henry went down in the estimation of many players on that trip. No doubt much of the ill feeling on their part was justified. It is clearly foolish to dismiss, as some commentators have, the grumbles of some English players as deriving merely from pique at being left out of the Test side.

The Welsh players – such as Colin Charvis, Neil Jenkins, David Young and, after he had belatedly joined the party, Scott Gibbs – had even greater cause for discontent. It seems that Henry started off by telling them they were among the greatest players in the world and then, when things started to go wrong, casting them into outer darkness.

The complaints may have been justified, not least the complaint about excessive training. Indeed, by my count, more players were crocked in training than in real matches. Henry and his assistants evidently forgot the old boxing maxim: "Don't leave it all in the gym.'' Nevertheless, even if some of the midweek performances were a disgrace to rugby in Great Britain and Ireland, at no stage were the Lions humiliated against Australia. They might even have won the series with a little bit of luck.

For myself, I do not blame Henry so much as Jonny Wilkinson. If he had not flung that idiotic pass inside his own 22 in the second Test, so enabling Joe Roff to intercept and score, the Lions could have won the match and accordingly the series. It is, I know, considered to be verging on the sacrilegious to say a word against Wilkinson in the English press. But I think the Lions would have been better served in Australia by David Humphreys, who was not even in the party. We shall see how they get on opposite each other at Twickenham on Saturday.

Nor is Henry's overall record as the Wales coach at all bad. In fact, it is rather good. Allowing coaches two points for a win and one for a draw, he has a score of 60 per cent. This is second only to that of the former London Welsh flanker Tony Gray (1985-88), with 63 per cent. The least successful coaches are Alec Evans, Ron Waldron and John Ryan, with success rates of, respectively, 25, 25 and 22 per cent. The coaches who were best liked by the players, Alan Davies (1991-95) and Kevin Bowring (1995-98), both had rates of just over 50 per cent.

Welsh coaches depart, however, not because of their overall record but after some disaster which is seen as a national humiliation. The defeat by Ireland was, entirely naturally, viewed in this light. Yet the administrators did not want Henry to go. The players likewise wanted him to stay but were not wholly sorry when he left: an illustration of their inability to make up their minds reflected earlier on the field of play.

Many observers blame Henry for bringing about this hesitant condition: "Jesus, I've got the ball. What am I supposed to do with it now?'' It used to be typical of England sides even up to and including the reigns of Jack Rowell and Geoff Cooke as coaches or managers. Now the English disease, largely eliminated by the present coach, Clive Woodward, has transferred itself to Wales.

The virus has not come from England but from New Zealand. Henry has been relying on systems, on so-called "pods'' where groups of players, usually three or four forwards, secure possession and hand it on to some other player or group. This theory tends to fail in practice because the opposing side have precisely the same idea in their heads.

The odd thing is that Henry had started off so differently, apparently coaching to the nation's strength, which are (or used to be) speed, guile and quick-wittedness, and trying to minimise its deficiencies, notably a shortage of really tall forwards. To this end he made use of shortened line-outs and – that still underdeveloped ploy – the quick throw-in from touch.

And yet, on £250,000 a year, Henry would never have been fully accepted or approved of unless he won every single match. His wife's position as coach to the Wales netball team served only to increase the resentment: this in a country where, within my own memory, married women teachers were simply not employed, on the basis that any work available should go to the men, who were assumed to need the money.

Henry's salary or retainer is common in the City. Some editors earn as much. A very few highly paid and prolific columnists (not this one) can equal it. In Wales such riches are virtually unknown. Need I say more?