{"id":917043,"date":"2026-10-05T13:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/917043\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:58:09","slug":"graham-henry-all-blacks-weaknesses-a-reflection-of-super-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/917043\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Henry: All Blacks weaknesses a ‘reflection’ of Super Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks legend Sir Graham Henry insists that Super Rugby has played a key part in the team\u2019s current weaknesses in some of the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

New Zealand head into the Bledisloe Cup off the back of three successive defeats to the Springboks where the hosts were dominant in the scrum and under the high ball.<\/p>\n

Those areas have been constantly exposed since the 2023 Rugby World Cup with neither Scott Robertson nor Dave Rennie able to solve the problem.<\/p>\n

If the All Blacks<\/a> are to win their fourth World Cup next year then they will need to improve in some of the basics of the sport.<\/p>\n

Exit of South African franchises<\/p>\n

However, the lack of South African sides in Super Rugby<\/a> makes that more difficult, according to Henry<\/a>, with the former New Zealand head coach questioning the quality of the current competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve got to improve the game we\u2019re playing. I think it reflects the level below, the Super Rugby level below and whether that\u2019s strong enough to produce top rugby players at Test match level,\u201d he told Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re learning the game really, learning to play a team like South Africa<\/a>, who are very good at scrum and very good at driving lineouts, you\u2019re learning how to play that at Test match level rather than at Super Rugby level because we don\u2019t play the South African teams at that level anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge in that regard but that\u2019s the reality, that\u2019s the way it is so you\u2019ve just got to do your best with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks coach takes massive learnings from \u2018best in the world\u2019 Springboks and laughs off \u2018walking around\u2019 scrum suggestion<\/a><\/p>\n

Henry, who has been hired as a selector by Rennie, also discussed the high ball issue which has plagued the team over the past few years.<\/p>\n

The 80-year-old has seen improvement over the past few games but concedes that it remains a problem for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a concern\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obviously a concern and the guys are working at it. It\u2019s getting better, we would like it to be perfect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not perfect but they\u2019re working at it and they\u2019ve got a strategy to try and do their best with it. We\u2019ve spent a lot of time on the high ball, believe it or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I think it\u2019s a reflection of the level below. We don\u2019t play that way as much as opposition teams do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t get that opportunity to perfect that at the level below, so we have to perfect it at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re working at it but it\u2019s a concern. Hopefully it will get better. The more you work at it, the better it will get I assume \u2013 it\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Scott Barrett\u2019s verdict on All Blacks\u2019 Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry: \u2018A slippery slope when you start complaining about referees\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Sir Graham Henry insists that Super Rugby has played a key part in the team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,1736,44,760,295871,1183,85,29898],"class_list":["post-917043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sir-graham-henry","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}