Wynne Gray: Henry's focus on All Blacks a little blurred

It is a classic rugby conundrum and one Graham Henry struggled with before he became All Blacks coach.

His ethos now is that everyone should do what is best for the national team. His glowering demeanour and sparing words did not hide those feelings as he tried to avoid criticising Jamie Joseph for refusing to play All Blacks in his NPC side.

Perhaps after six years with the international team, Henry has lost a little perspective on the difficulties in preparing sides at lower levels.

He seems to get everything he needs, including pulling more than 30 players into an All Blacks refresher course this week in the middle of the national championship.

Then he gets snarky when some players he wants to have a game are not picked by Wellington for a drive-by appearance before scarpering off to All Black duty.

Coaching the Blues back in 1998, Henry did not appreciate John Hart's attempts to get Carlos Spencer kicking goals rather than Adrian Cashmore. "My first responsibility was to my team, not John's, and anything I didn't consider was in the best interest of the Auckland Blues, I didn't entertain," he penned in his X Factor biography.

We all change, our ideas alter with time and experience, but that philosophy would seem to match some of Joseph's thinking.

Henry had earlier troubles. In early 1995, he wanted all his Auckland players involved in a goodwill game against Harbour to ease the tension from their spiteful NPC final the year before.

The concept had merit but not when it clashed with a World Cup camp which had been pre-arranged by Laurie Mains. Eventually six players arrived at the Christchurch camp in late February but were unable to take a full part in the activities.

Contrast that with the demands Henry and co made about removing prospective World Cup players from the 2007 Super 14 series which mutilated that competition.

There was also a feisty square-off between the same two coaches in early 1992 when Henry resisted overtures from Mains to rest some of his internationals from an Auckland trial game at Western Springs.

For more than the last decade in Wales and New Zealand, Henry has been in the international scene and sees issues largely from that perspective. He would like the All Blacks to have every advantage.

He gets his way most of the time and teams have used his part-timers or recovering players when they can. It is not always to their advantage, as seen by the awkward reintroduction this week of Luke McAlister to the North Harbour backline.

If Henry and his cohorts interrupted less, chose smaller squads and players who were showing regular form, there might be more sympathy.

The current disquiet is only going to get worse with another gap after the Bledisloe in Sydney. Watch out for a mess in October, when the Tri-Nations series is over and there is a large interval before the All Blacks leave for their Northern Hemisphere tour.

There will be pressure for most to play in the NPC and then a squad of 32 or so will be gone - with the semifinals and final still to be decided.