Rugby: Henry highlights need for ARU development

Auckland Rugby will look to reinstate development coaches in a move described as "back to the future".

All Blacks coach Graham Henry recently lamented the demise of Auckland's six development coaches, saying that schoolboy rugby had descended into little more than a "macho" game where players want to run over the top of each other rather than creating space.

"We're in trouble unless we can coach the coaches so that the kids can develop their skills and understanding," Henry told the UK Daily Telegraph. "I do worry about the future. We used to have six coaching co-ordinators in Auckland.

"They each had responsibility for a number of schools and clubs in their area. They were knowledgeable people and they would get the message out there to the coaches. We were in good shape in those days.

"It was an amateur game back then. All the money wasn't channelled into paying the players. It was channelled into development. Now it's all going on wages and there is no education. Not one of those six is left now. Not one."

His comments were timely. The ARU had been discussing the situation for the past six months as part of ongoing reviews and were looking into whether employing a handful of development officers would help address some of the problems Henry talked about.

They have since invited the All Blacks coach to a high performance working group early in the New Year to discuss his concerns and some ideas for the future.

"Graham is spot-on with his comments," Auckland high performance manager Mike Wallace said. "We are reviewing our processes and identifying areas that could be done better. We came up with the idea [to bring back development coaches] before Graham Henry made these comments for us to take a step back to the future.

"We recognise that could be a move to improve our rugby. We are not saying that everything we do now is bad but coach education and the continual evolution of the player and for players to be better and smarter at a younger age is important and constantly evolving."

The previous model was phased out in the mid-2000s as the ARU put more emphasis on clubs to develop players. Clubs had their own development officers and the ARU helped them meet costs to the tune of $720,000.

The reality is, though, some clubs are better than others at developing players, which has prompted the ARU into a re-think.

They are presently working through the best model that is also affordable.

"We probably can't afford to not look at all of our options," Wallace said.

"Graham is not unrealistic in what he is saying. We have to recognise the landscape has changed but the key fundamentals of player and coach development haven't. The perfect model is for better coaches to be coaching better players.

"When the game was amateur, a lot of the growing and development of players and tactical understanding happened because of both school and club rugby. There was a transition from schoolboy, under-21 and senior rugby. Now we see players going straight from school to the Air New Zealand Cup.

"Some of those steps that existed in the '80s and '90s don't exist any more. We are having to look at that and understand that the average age of a professional player is coming down."