KEY POINTS:
In a 30-year coaching career, Graham Henry reckons the last two months have been the most demanding. The 20 minutes pacing the halls of the New Zealand Rugby Union on Friday morning as he waited to hear his fate were probably the worst.
"Thankfully that didn't take as
long as I expected," he said after hearing the All Black coaching job was his for another two years. "It's been very demanding. It is a relief to be offered the position again and a relief for the people I have worked with.
"We have all worked hard at self-improvement so as we can try to keep a step ahead of the opposition. That desire to be better all the time is critical."
In the wake of the World Cup disaster in Cardiff Henry had to be sure the desire was still there. He has spent much of every day since October 6 thinking about that game. "It was never-ending. Relentless," he said, but the very fact failure hurt so much was evidence of his own hunger to put things right.
There was initial petulance on his part when the NZRU board didn't simply stamp his contract with a two-year extension. "That was naive, though," he admits and once he accepted the fight was on, he fancied it.
Henry reckoned he had good men in his corner and when captain Richie McCaw revealed the ground troops were all behind him, the application was slipped in the post.
A two-hour interview on Thursday night which Henry says was harder than the one he endured in 2003 to first get the job followed and at about 9.30am on Friday board director Mike Eagle broke the good news to him.
While Henry's appointment was not unanimously welcomed across New Zealand, a roar boomed out across the Hauraki Gulf when word reached the Rugby Players' Association fish-ing trip.
There would certainly be a few All Blacks of recent seasons left cold by Henry's work - Aaron Mauger, Piri Weepu, Justin Marshall - but it does appear as if the bulk of the squad are supportive of the re-appointed coach.
That support stems from Henry's understanding of the modern game and his mellowed approach. "If I coached the same way I coached when I had Auckland and the Blues... I don't think [those methods] would be appropriate with this team.
"They have come through a different learning environment. There is a lot more consensus these days rather than being authoritarian. I guess I have become more consensus driven and I'm a lot more sensitive to the people I am coaching, without losing the ability to redirect.
"I think I have also learned to stay cool in pressure situations. That comes with experience. You can't buy experience and I guess having picked up a few scars along the way helps, too."
Those scars are harder to conceal. The first was inflicted on the British Lions tour of 2001 where not only was the series lost 2-1 to an average Wallabies side, but there was widespread dissent.
Then after a glittering start with Wales Henry slowly lost the changing room and in 2002 he scarpered home a few days after Ireland inflicted a record defeat.
And then of course there was presiding over the worst All Black World Cup campaign in history. During these last two months of soul searching, Henry kept coming back to his experience, believing it was his key strength.
"If you look at the most successful coaches around the world, they have all got longevity.
"Wayne Bennett has been with the Brisbane Broncos for 20 years and he's the most successful coach in the NRL.
"Sir Alex Ferguson is the longest-serving manager in the English Premiership - and the most successful.
"Even my old mate Clive Woodward - he coached England for eight years before they won a World Cup.
"There are a lot of pluses about longevity so I don't think we should get hung up about players hearing the same voice. There are of lot changes in playing personnel as well so you are not talking to the same one all the time anyway. The desire to be involved and to continue to make this team great is the big motivational factor."
Coach to his All Black critics - you have no idea
After two months of heavy criticism from all corners, Graham Henry has fired back at those former All Blacks who have rubbished his methods.
In the wake of the World Cup disaster, a litany of famous players have given Henry a blast over his policies of rotation and reconditioning.
But the re-appointed coach has advised those former All Blacks to keep quiet, warning them they are entirely ignorant of the professional game.
"I see a lot of former All Blacks making comments about player welfare," said Henry.
"But they have got no idea of the demands placed on the modern player. The game is so much more physical now. The players are bigger and they hit each other with a lot more force and they take a lot longer to recover.
"If you don't have a player welfare policy in place you are going to lose a lot more tests.
"Our policy is to win tests and when you come to select a team to win a particular game, player welfare is going to come into it.
"If a player has played two or three tests in consecutive weeks, he is not likely to be at the peak of his powers for that particular game. Whereas someone who might be coming back from an injury or has played only a bit part in the last few games, might be better for that test."
Henry is able to drum up such passion in defence of his stance as he is adamant the bloated test calendar is making excessive and career-threatening demands of the players.
"When Wayne Smith coached the All Blacks in 2000 they played eight tests a year. Next year we are going to play 16. Player welfare was not something you needed in the 1980s and 1990s, but it is something you need now."
While some New Zealanders remain sceptical about the validity of these claims, All Black captain Richie McCaw revealed last week at a conference in the UK that he would not have re-signed with the New Zealand Rugby Union this year had it not been for the conditioning programme.
McCaw said most leading players were wary of how big a toll test football was taking and that they welcomed initiatives that saw their workloads carefully managed.
