UFO Info Week-End

Unfortunately for Graham Henry the wilderness option is not available

Unfortunately for Graham Henry, the wilderness option is not available. However much he may crave a little time and space, he is smack bang in the middle of the emotional and very public maelstrom known as Welsh rugby. The saviour of a nation? Right now, Henry has it all to do to save himself. Historical evidence indicates that charismatic leaders burdened with the “Great Redeemer” tag invariably benefit from a few days and nights in the wilderness, during which time they can ask themselves some hard questions, expel the odd demon from the soul and establish the precise nature of the challenge ahead.

Unfortunately for Graham Henry, the wilderness option is not available. However much he may crave a little time and space, he is smack bang in the middle of the emotional and very public maelstrom known as Welsh rugby. The saviour of a nation? Right now, Henry has it all to do to save himself.
It would be stretching a point to suggest any immediate threat to the New Zealander’s position as national coach: he is contracted until the end of the 2003 World Cup and, anyway, the Welsh Rugby Union is no more than putty in his hands. When Henry says “jump”, they all hit their heads on the nearest ceiling – from the chairman, Glanmore Griffiths, right down to the Millennium Stadium roof operators. All the same, defeat in Paris this afternoon would leave him lower in the esteem of his adoptive countrymen than at any point since he arrived in Cardiff almost two and a half years ago.The cooling of affection is directly linked to results, or the lack of them.

After failing in three of his first four outings at the helm of the Red Dragonhood, Henry recorded 10 victories on the bounce. They were not soft victories, either: three against the Argentinians, two of them in barbed wire country down Buenos Aires way, and two against the French, plus a first-ever Welsh triumph over the Springboks. There was a striking success in Rome, too, and another against the rock-hard, born-awkward Canadians. But since the tactical misfire against Samoa during the 1999 World Cup, Wales have managed only five wins from their last 12 internationals, one of them against a pitifully weak United States. They are not yet in free-fall, but they need to pack a parachute this afternoon, just in case.There is, however, another force at work here: an unease that cannot be explained simply by a disappointing run of performances.

Until now, Henry has been untouchable, to the extent that the so-called “Grannygate” scandal, in which his fellow New Zealanders Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson were exposed as international interlopers, blew itself out without ruffling so much as a hair on the coach’s head. Over the last few months, however, his waspish approach to man-management and his selectorial inconsistencies have been openly questioned – and criticised – by the rank and file of a rugby-driven land.In the far west of the country, there is deep resentment at his mishandling of Arwel Thomas, the gifted Swansea stand-off, and, more recently, of Mark Jones, the free-scoring Llanelli wing. In the east, the clubhouse cognoscenti find it astonishing that the coach has not given Craig Morgan of Cardiff a gallop at Test level. And then there is Henry’s chronic indecision over Rhys Williams – dropped, recalled, dropped again, recalled again, all in the space of seven weeks.Williams is a one-in-a-million player, made from the same ambrosial ingredients as England’s Iain Balshaw. Given runnable possession at the right time in the right area of the pitch, he can dismantle the most organised of defensive walls.

What did Henry do against England, the best defenders in European rugby? Why, he picked a stand-off at full-back, and a one-paced stand-off at that. He would have repeated his folly against Ireland a fortnight ago, had not the foot-and-mouth outbreak intervened on his behalf.To make matters worse, the coach is getting little change from the Welsh Premier League clubs. His initial plan to revamp the domestic structure – four super-clubs with guaranteed Heineken Cup qualification, access to the best young talent, financial incentives from the WRU and all the trimmings – died a death when the likes of Pontypridd, Ebbw Vale and Neath refused to roll over and accept second-class citizenship. Earlier this month, a second Henry proposal every bit as radical and even more inflammatory appeared on the table: in order to maximise Welsh chances at European level, Cardiff should join forces with a resurgent Bridgend, Swansea with Neath, Newport with Cross Keys and Ponty with Caerphilly and Ebbw Vale.” “On your bike,” replied the clubs, in unison.A little over a fortnight ago, Henry could be heard bemoaning the Welsh rugby public’s lack of perspective. “In this country, it’s either total ecstasy or total depression,” he said. “There’s never any middle road.” This week, the frustration of spending his working life inside an emotional pinball machine was still eating away at him.