All Blacks: Players need break during Super 15, says Henry

Graham Henry said it would be "ridiculous" to think that a player could appear in every Super 15 game. Photo / Sarah Mitchell

Coach Graham Henry says players will need to be given time out during the expanded Super 15 rugby competition next year.

Henry said today that the All Blacks coaching panel would meet New Zealand's Super 15 coaches this month to discuss the issue and to "try to get on the same page".

The competition, which will include newcomers the Melbourne Rebels, is set to have each team playing 16 round-robin fixtures, followed by a playoff series in which the finalists would have between two and three further matches, making potentially 19 in total, four more than in the Super 14.

Henry said it would be "ridiculous" to think that a player could appear in every Super 15 game.

"I just think guys need to make sensible decisions so that people play at a high standard all the time and we will be discussing that with the Super 15 coaches in late September."

With each Super 15 side scheduled to get two byes, spelling players for another two matches so they had four weeks off would be "a reasonably logical way of looking at it".

Henry also believed that players should get out to the rugby environment on their weeks off so they could freshen up mentally.

With New Zealand already having wrapped up this year's Tri-Nations with a test against the Wallabies in Sydney to still to come on September 11, Henry admitted that the All Blacks' come-back after hitting "rock bottom" a year ago had gone better than expected.

The All Blacks lost all three clashes against eventual tournament victors South Africa last year, after having dropped a home match against France as well.

But they went on to claim all five tests on their end-of-year tour, including a hugely impressive 39-12 defeat of the French, and are on a 14-match winning streak.

"A lot of benefits we are seeing now were the result of last year's Tri-Nations, where we hit rock bottom," Henry said.

"We had to re-establish ourselves and the tour, I think, helped us do that considerably. We really set some objectives on that tour and it came together in that last test match in Marseille."

Henry said among the differences this year was having skipper Richie McCaw, whom he described as the most influential player in the world at the moment, and first five-eighth Daniel Carter available. Both were out injured for part of last year.

As well, senior players like centre Conrad Smith, fullback Mils Muliaina, lock Brad Thorn and hooker Kevin Mealamu had grown as leaders.

Henry and assistants Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith have gone for largely settled selections during the Tri-Nations rather than rotation, but Henry said the end-of-year tour with a 30-strong squad would likely see a different philosophy.

"I know people don't like going down there but I think we are going to have to give guys opportunity to play," he said, adding that after Sydney, the All Blacks would have only nine more tests to give players international experience before the World Cup begins.

- NZPA