Graham sees Irish as threat
By DAIRE WALSH
IRELAND are famously still searching for their senior international victory over New Zealand.
But former All Blacks coach Graham Henry believes Joe Schmidt’s side have the capacity to upset the odds against the world champions in their upcoming Test encounters.
The sides clash in Chicago on November 5 and then again at the Aviva Stadium two weeks later. But Henry, who has joined Leinster for two weeks on a consultancy basis, feels Ireland’s historic triumph at the start of the South African tour shows how capable they are.
He added: “Ireland teams have been hugely competitive and they will be hugely disappointed with their World Cup performance. I saw the game against Argentina and when they lost the skipper Paul O’Connell and Sean O’Brien and Jonathan Sexton it was gone wasn’t it? Then they went to South Africa and won the first Test with a lot of guys not there due to injury. How many guys couldn’t go? At least 10. That’s a bloody positive.”
Henry, a World Cup winner with his native land in 2011, has been impressed with the job that Schmidt has done with Ireland, and believes he could boss New Zealand one day.
He continued: “I rate him exceptionally highly. I think he is one of the best coaches in the world and I know the players enjoy playing for him. He has got to make those personal decisions about what he is going to do going forward.
“There is a law in New Zealand that to be an All Black coach you have to be coaching in New Zealand to go the next step. In recent times they have appointed coaches from within to get that continuity, so Joe might need to be a wee bit patient but he is quality. And I think the older you are the better you’ll be so there is no rush.”