Graham Henry warns that New Zealand “will not win big events” unless the Kiwis raise their standards to challenge the Springboks and other leading nations.
The All Blacks opened the Dave Rennie era with a 34-32 Nations Championship victory over France on Saturday, but Henry said the performance also exposed how much work remains before Australia 2027.
Henry, who guided New Zealand to World Cup glory in 2011, is now a national selector and working alongside Rennie and assistant Neil Barnes as the All Blacks try to close the gap on the world champion Boks.
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“We’ve just got to improve, haven’t we? We’ve just got to keep on improving what we’re doing and develop our game,” Henry said in an interview on Sport Nation.
“South Africa are superb obviously and the French are right up there. There are a lot of good sides around the world and they’re stronger now than they used to be.
“We will not win big events with the current way of playing. We’ve got a huge improvement that needs to be made if we’re going to be competitive on the big stage.”
Henry said Rennie must strike the right balance between winning Tests and exposing new talent with just over a year until the World Cup Down Under.
Three players made their Test debuts off the bench against Les Bleus, while Josh Moorby and Anton Segner have since been added to the wider training squad.
“We’ve got to try and play as many guys as possible, keep people fresh, give people opportunity so they feel really involved and try to win rugby matches, so it’s trying to get that balance right,” Henry said.
He also praised the performances of loose forward Luke Jacobson and flyhalf Ruben Love last week, noting Jacobson “showed why he’s been picked” while Love responded well after an early yellow card.
Photo: Joe Allison/Nations Championship via Getty Images
The post Ted talks All Blacks’ need to match Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Graham Henry warns that New Zealand “will not win big events” unless the Kiwis raise their standards to challenge the Springboks and other leading nations.
The post Ted talks All Blacks’ need to match Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
