All Black coaches......are you serious?

Yeah you are right with most of what you say, especially Henry saying "judge me on the RWC". Also I'll never understand why no coaches seem to learn from previous years mistakes and still end up playing full backs at centre. Cullen in 1999, Mcdonald in 2003 then Mils in 2007? When have those 3 ever played centre other than at world cup time (the most important time).

In Henry's defence the mass exodus of players from NZ rugby was always going to catch up with us and now it finally has. They just don't have the depth to be the unstoppable force, especially with their two best players (McCaw and Carter) injured.

I don't agree with all of Henry's selections and before the NZRU goes and offers him a contract extension they should watch his results in the Tri Nations and then decide

I think the problem is they want experience in the back row, hence playing players out of position. Although I agree that Read should be in 6 and Kaino in 8, do we all remember the outcry when Kaino was first put in as number 8?

I think we all need to let the RWC saga die away now, bringing it up does nothing but make us sound like sore losers, even if a large minority feel strongly about it still. We may have had the worst RWC finish, but I think I'm correct in saying that up to that point they had pretty much the best winning record ever.

I just hope we have got over our usual first test of the year blues (normally played against weaker sides and therefore still coming out with a win) and are now going to take this next test by the throat and give us all some confidence going forward.

Henry has a great AB record over all but then his list of failures may well be the longest as well. The flip-flop of annoucing Henry would be replaced and then deciding they only wanted him was always going to haunt the Rugby board until the end of the next world cup any time something looks serious wrong.

Smith has been there since John Hart was the AB coach, I doubt one should be allowed to stay that long because perceptions always date, even if the rules dont.

Its too late to change coaches now, it should have been started this year to give anyone else a fair go. Mitchell had less than three years.

1. Kaino is usually a blindside flanker.

2. Thompson plays both openside and blindside.

3. Read can play number 8.

The problem is they've got three players who normally play blindside flanker and only one of them can play there.

You do bring up a valid point though. Kaino has played a lot of games at number 8 recently, so logically he should be there. Read has been playing a couple of games at number 8, but he really should be playing blindside. As for Thompson, he's not playing, so there's no point worrying about him.

Who knows what Henry is thinking. Our forwards did badly against the French, so I assume that he wants to shuffle them around a bit. It's doesn't seem like the logical thing to do, but Graham Henry isn't your typical coach. He was the guy that got Muliaina to move from centre to fullback and let Carter move from second-five to first-five and they turned out to be brilliant ideas. If shuffling the loose forwards around ends up working, it won't surprise me.

We lost guys. Move on!!! Maybe we played players in different positions who cares. Sum1 said we should learn to win without Ritchie an Dan. How are we going to do that if we cant play other players in different positions. We have had 1 loss man its like its the end of the world.

Also look at Henrys record since he's been the coach. Not many loses outta 50 odd games. Everyteam goes thru a period where they loose a few maybe its our time. Better now than in a world cup year.

I have to agree with you, the players should be playing in thier proper positions or positions they have played more recently. That said, as professionals they should have been able to adapt. I see part of the problem being is that they have played the last season under the ELVs and have been "bred " for speed and not so much for the tough stuff, more emphasis has been on support running and getting to the breakdown to get the free kicks. Im glad to see Kaino back in as he adds a bit more size and grunt that Thompson or Read. They were just completely out muscled in the tight stuff.

Robbie Deans should be the all blacks coach when Henry failed to win the world cup..end of story...NZRU should bury thier heads in shame...even when Henry won all the games that didnt matter last year, a lot of people werent intrested, why because the fans wants the all blacks to win the bloody world cup...its been a long time and we failed to win the main CUP..

judge me on the world cup as he said..instead we re appointed the principle for another failing path lol.

NZ ALL BLACKS will not win the next world cup i can tell you that now.

we can see how our players perform now and that will not change come 2011.

the reason why Henry and his old assistants keep playing players out of positions is simply because they cant count numbers, they dont know what is 6,7,8 or 12, add that up and it's all f.... up lol

SHAME ON YOU NZRU

Yeah you do indeed bring a good point. But as the guys at the complete top said he did not mix up the positions to much they all had exp in their positions they played. I think we came to a stage where the forwards in NZ aren't simply not what they used to be so we might have to get used to....

I'm gonna watch the game this weekend and then I'll come to my conclusion what i think... because after all it was the first test of the whole season so let's see what comes. I Hope to see a big improvement of the forwards compared to last week because what happened last week was EMBARRASSING

i think your jumping the gun here a bit champ,one test....one test isn't enough to judge on how well the all blacks are gonna go for the future,i think what the trio is doing is fine,their building the future of the all blacks thinking ahead,as for the world cup there's really nothing that they couldv'e done better.in the end it wasn't meant to be,just have to look at the success that they have produced during the time they have been in charge of the all blacks.as far as im concerned the all blacks didn't lose last week but merely a test drive to tweak the mighty all black engine,if they lose this week,then we have a problem.peace. GO THE MIGHTY WARRIORS!!!

anyone who knows anything knows that australia has the best coach NZ could ever produce STATS can show you that....australia was a second rate team before he came NZ has to prove something now...that henry is even worth coaching the all blacks....you might want to start considering someone new for the 11 world cup henry might get you semis....but deans is use to winning so deans for 2011