KEY POINTS:
PARIS: A collection of 60 film clips is the arsenal Graham Henry has used to mount his defensive strategies against France.
He spent a week before Lyon scrolling through footage of seven games the French had played this year to prepare the All Blacks for any attack their
hosts would apply.
The payback was stunning. The All Blacks kept their tryline intact while making more than 200 tackles, a statistic Henry lauded. All the analysis would not have been any use though, without the players' attitude.
"Defence is all about desire, working within policy and having the right technique," he said.
"Fifty per cent of it is heart and head. If you haven't got the desire you are never going to be a good tackler."
Henry admitted only one slight gaffe in his intricate defensive detail when he misread a play France pulled regularly from a scrum on the right side of the field.
The blindside wing would run from right to left to take the ball from the No 8 while the halfback made a decoy run down the right side of the scrum.
"This time, though, the No 8 ran and kept the ball," he grinned.
French patterns were apparent in looking at several of their matches, said Henry. They played a certain way from scrums, they drove lineouts or used the willie-away and attacked the shortside.
It was his job to gather and prune the detail into simple, crisp messages for his side.
"The biggest problem is that I have too much information, and sorting the right amount has always been one of my difficulties.
"You try and make it as simple as possible for the guys, but you do not want to miss anything that is going to be a major. It is demanding - like it took me a week to analyse France for Lyon - but the second time it is much easier."
Henry added another 20 film clips from the 47-3 triumph last weekend and presented those to the All Blacks midweek. Most of them reinforced what the team had achieved, getting up off the line fast, putting heat on and closing the gate on the inside runners.
"We also looked at the two tries we scored defending their scrum and lineout feeds. We destroyed them there defensively. Those are ploys we use and it deflated them.
"To balance it we also watched a couple of our system failures."
When he coached Auckland and the Blues, Henry spent hours viewing videotape, rewinding and fast-forwarding his old VCR. It was tedious and exasperating.
But the dividends were huge. Like the time Auckland beat Canterbury 35-0 in a Ranfurly Shield challenge, kicking dead and forcing the holders into a bewildering succession of restarts. "We knew basically when they were going to fart that day and they changed the rules after that," Henry said.
Since then digital technology and computer analysis of rugby have advanced rapidly and Henry is now au fait with that new world, although he admitted he barely knew how to start a computer seven years ago.
"I can do it now, I can get all the stuff I need and can present it, I can clip the plays I want the team to watch and link them together."
Ideally, during a test Henry would like to watch from end-on or have that footage on a television screen in front of him. It was the best way to watch opponents' defence, where the holes were and where their back three were playing.
However, they were fed rolling stats during the test from Andrew Sullivan, who downloaded that data in his role as team analyst while the coaches got tapes from several angles to assess after each game.
"We like to tweak our systems each week," said Henry. "We tried two systems at Twickenham against England, but that created some indecision. You notice that Warren Gatland struggled to get his rush defence style going in the first year with Waikato, and it has come right, and we were trying to get our ideas done in two weeks here.
"We went back to one system against France and because Mils [Muliaina] and Ma'a [Nonu] have not played together and that midfield is a crunch area. We have tried to keep it simple for this week."
He said the reconditioning window for 22 All Blacks next season would be a great time to refine and explore new defensive theories.
The rush defence was favoured by England, the Springboks and clubs in Britain. It was difficult to attack against because defenders could blindside players coming from outside to inside, but if breaks were made the system was vulnerable because there was no sweeper.
In defending in to out, or drifting, someone was always looking after the space behind the line.
Henry would like to use both systems, but he accepted he was more a disciple of the in-to-out defensive screen. "That is about getting off the line quickly, which we did the best at Lyon we have for a while, and communication."
The key man in the All Black defence was Daniel Carter at first five-eighths. He made the calls. From set-piece he was always looking where the opposing blindside wing was.
"If he is going to attack wide, you defend one out, and if he is waiting inside the opposite five-eighths, you have to play man-on-man defence."
The most difficult part of defence was coping with double touches from the opposition five-eighths. That created indecision and space.
"It means you have to communicate hard and push out, and we are trying to get more of those double touches in our attack."
When Henry returned to NZ after stints with Wales and the Lions, he took on the role of technical adviser and defensive coach with the Blues.
A similar vacancy existed with the All Blacks, he said, and he loved that chess-like element of the game.
NEW ZEALAND
Leon MacDonald, Joe Rokocoko, Mils Muliaina, Ma'a Nonu, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Dan Carter, Byron Kelleher, Rodney So'oialo, Richie McCaw (c), Jerry Collins, Ali Williams, Chris Jack, Carl Hayman, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock,
RESERVES: Andrew Hore, Neemia Tialata, Jason Eaton, Chris Masoe, Andrew Ellis, Nick Evans, Luke McAlister
FRANCE
Pepito Elhorga, Aurelien Rougerie, Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans, Damien Traille, J.B. Elissalde, Elvis Vermeulen, Remy Martin, Julien Bonnaire, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Pieter de Villiers, Raphael Ibanez (c), Olivier Milloud
RESERVES: Dimitri Szarzewski, Sylvain Marconnet, Loic Jacquet, Serge Betsen, Dimitri Yachvili, David Marty, Christophe Dominici.
