Henry slams one-dimensional Poms
30 Jan 2012
Graham Henry believes England’s attacking woes are rooted in a flawed national mindset rather than a lack of talented personnel.
Speaking on therugbysite.com, the former All Blacks coach described England as the ‘world champions of wasting talent’ and said that unless they change their outdated approach they will continue to struggle against southern hemisphere opposition. Henry’s harsh words come just a week before the Six Nations and four months before England travel to South Africa for a three-Test series.
‘England has top-drawer attacking players [but] they are seldom used,’ Henry said. ‘At national level and at club level English teams are far too worried about securing possession. They are obsessed with sealing off the ball carrier. They are paranoid that an opponent might steal the ball and so everyone jams on the brakes and seals off possession.
‘It is fearful and often illegal. OK, so the opposition can’t get at the ball, but there is no dynamic forward momentum and nobody is being shifted out of the defensive line. No wonder England had trouble scoring tries against the better teams at the World Cup.’
Interim coach Stuart Lancaster has promised to install a new culture following the embarrassing English antics at last year’s global tournament in New Zealand. As far as Henry is concerned, there also needs to be a shift in mindset, and it has to start with this week’s clash with Scotland.
‘England has a backline to get excited about but they will never fulfil their potential unless the team can win quick ball. This needs a total change of policy for the Six Nations. England must go to Murrayfield and stick it to the opposition. They have to smash the Scottish forwards past the ball instead of conservatively stopping at the tackled player in order to secure possession.
‘A country with over a million players should be the best team in the world and England’s potential in the backs is as good as it has ever been. Ben Foden’s a good player, Chris Ashton is a handful and Delon Armitage has always impressed me. But how frustrated those players must get in a white shirt. England and the English clubs play a game based on fear and a generation of promising backs are dying on their feet. That has to change.’
12 Comments
30 Jan 2012, 10:14 am
Hmmm… Henry trying to get the Pims fired up before the Bok tests..
30 Jan 2012, 10:31 am
Ted wants that pom DoR job. the RFU has to bite
30 Jan 2012, 10:40 am
‘It is fearful and often illegal. OK, so the opposition can’t get at the ball, but there is no dynamic forward momentum and nobody is being shifted out of the defensive line. No wonder England had trouble scoring tries against the better teams at the World Cup.’
Couldn’t he just as easily be talking about the Boks here?
30 Jan 2012, 10:56 am
@Matt Cowan-3: the Boks don’t seal any ball hence the likes of Pocock have a field day poaching Bok deck ball.
30 Jan 2012, 11:44 am
“it is fearful and often iilegal”, he is talking about mc cheat surely? Seals off the ball like a world champ as taught by Ted. Talk about pots and kettles
30 Jan 2012, 12:04 pm
Ted is being generous in supplying England with some sorely needed advice!
30 Jan 2012, 14:41 pm
even divvy could’ve told the english that…
30 Jan 2012, 15:21 pm
@Transformation-4: @Matt Cowan-3: Transie is correct, we don’t seal the carrier, partly due to poor support lines.
We also don’t smash the smash opposition forwards past the ball as Henry described – something the All Blacks did particularly well, which also forced defensive lines against them a few centimeters backwards than would be the case otherwise.
30 Jan 2012, 20:37 pm
@willievz-8: the boks hit the rucks with fury not matched by any other team.
however they’re not accurate enough. AB’s , tight 5 will hit the rucks indescriminantly, initially to drive the forwards on top of the ruck/maul off it. the loosies will then come in and see if there’s any weaknesses in the formation, if there is then they’ll hit the ruck as well and prise the ball/player loose, else they’ll stand back and step into the D line
boks tend to pile in and put in clean outs, which hurt but doesnt neccessarily mean the balls coming back any faster.
30 Jan 2012, 22:45 pm
The Poms make the PrickBoks look like Brazil.
75% territory & 60+% possession vs Wallabies and yet they couldn’t score ONE try.
So they blame the ref. Of course.
30 Jan 2012, 23:57 pm
@whatever-5:
Though i dont argue the McCaw point, as you know to be a good fetcher, you need to do what you can and get away with it. Ask Brussow, but some people seem to miss the fact that McCaw isnt the only player that goes over the line.
According to most springbok supporters, Pocock and McCaw are the only ones that cheat, strange dont you think?
Anyway the mighty GH, best coach ever to grace this planet has said Poms are the worlds best waste of players. Suppose its better than being called a the worlds best wasted space.
31 Jan 2012, 06:05 am
Say what you want about Uncle Ted, but he’s spot on here. The Poms just got more coaching in 3 paragraphs of a website posting than Jonno gave them in 4 years. England has the talent, but is sorely lacking in brains, imagination, and strategy.
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