Rugby Rants - Talk Rugby - Fantasy Rugby Game Stats

Graham Henrys' Allegations - Do You Agree? 12 views 13 Comments
30 July 2012 by The Swede Eaters

Scotty Donaldson looks at former All Blacks coach Graham Henry's matchfixing allegations and other findings which are to be released in his new book. Do you agree with his findings?

Graham Henry has shown the yellow card to the match officials of the Rugby World Cup 2007 Quarter-Final match between the All Blacks and France - accusing them of foul play and match-fixing in his new biography 'Graham Henry Final Word'. I saw an interesting documentary on TVNZ's Sunday show.

The book looks at how he struggled with depression following the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2001, changing the All Blacks culture away from the binge drinking culture (I saw evidence of this first hand) and Graham Henry has come out firing suggesting that the All Blacks 2007 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final loss to France was as a result of match-fixing.

After the All Blacks defeat to France in 2007, Graham Henry did some analysis and discovered that France didn't concede a penalty in the last sixty minutes of that Quarter-Final, yet Henry thinks there were forty offences committed by the French in that sixty minutes and lets not mention that forward pass. The All Blacks attacked over seventy percent of the time during that last sixty minutes, yet never got awarded a penalty. Henry got told to shut up by officials for making claims about match-fixing and Wayne Barnes' performance or Henry would lose his job.

I wonder if it is more a lack of ability by the referee which sees them shown up at this level? It seems that sometimes referees get stage fright at the top level under the pressure from the crowd and the players and cave in. I think that the 2007 Quarter Final performance by Wayne Barnes was shocking, but the crowd and the French players intimidated him. I also think the same thing happened to Bryce Lawrence in the 2011 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Finals. The conspiracy theorist would suggest match-fixing, because the referee is so influential in a game of rugby, this is always possible, but I wonder if both of these times, it was incompetence and cracking under the pressure? I think there was also an element of that in both the 1995 and 2011 Rugby World Cup finals where there was so much pressure on a home victory that it could easily have helped the home team to get some favourable decisions.

Do you think these accusations are simply a way of selling more books? They definitely give a look of sour grapes and bitterness.

What do you think about Sir Graham Henry's allegation of match-fixing in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final?

There are copies of some video interviews.

http://www.superrugbytips.com/2012/07/all-blacks-coach-sir-graham-henrys.html

➜

Tags: Graham Henry

Comments (13)

Rating:

	13 . Cave Dweller 08 Aug 2012 01:00 PM Well believe what you want but there is about 30 contradicting statements from all of them. Best one was Mexted saying it was the milk. Guess what in 1995 NZ had a food poison outbreak with the milk before the World Cup. Which led to a law that was passed both in Australia and NZ. Try doing some research first before calling things crap. Before a court they will be locked up for perjury with that contradicting statements. The NZ team played like the one we saw right through the World Cup. Only difference was they were given no space and one took Lomu down. Many New Zealanders could not accept the fact that their secret weapon, Jonah Lomu, who had simply walked over the England team in the semi-finals, did not make an impact in the final. They ignored the fact that the Springboks had chosen, firstly, to tackle him from the outside, where he carried the ball and could not use his powerful arm to shove them away; and, secondly, to refuse to respect his size and tackle him head on instead of waiting for him to run past. No, that was no explanation: the man's strength was supernatural, and only something unnatural could have stopped him.
	12 . stefdawg101 07 Aug 2012 08:22 PM cave what a load of crap it wasnt just jeff who was poisend the bulk of the team were it was on sean fits the and 3 others that were fine as they missed the dinner that night
	11 . Cave Dweller 03 Aug 2012 08:59 PM That bodyguard for Richard Loe. No one will buy a biography from a security guard. But people will buy it if he mentions something in it related to a controversial incident. Fiction or not. No one will care to go and look it up.
	10 . Cave Dweller 03 Aug 2012 08:12 PM That bodyguard for Richard Loe. No one will buy a biography from a security guard. But people will buy it if he mentions something in it related to a controversial incident. Fiction or not. No one will care to go and look it up.
	9 . The Swede Eaters 03 Aug 2012 12:33 AM Yeah you are right, there is nothing like controversy to sell a book.
	8 . Cave Dweller 03 Aug 2012 12:11 AM Nothing sells a book like saying something controversial. I really like NZ but one thing they must learn is to stop making excuses and making things up when they lose. Maybe the rugby mad public should be more forgiving. 91 - Organizers scheduling it on a sabbath ruling Michael Jones out 95 - Food poisoning 99 - Frenching grabbing their testicles and getting away with it 2003 - Missed that excuse 2007 - Match Fixing Only two times there were no silly far fetched excuses was when they won it how surprising. 95 Fud of food poisoning no one care to look what is the country with the highest food poisoning figures in the world. Yes that is NZ. Easy to use a illness that is well familiar to them and then make up things as it go along. Jeff Wilson blowing chunks is not a NZ team poisoned. Maybe they should start look at themselves and realized they lost in all those world cup games because they went into all of them without a plan B. When their game didn't work out for them they did not know what to do. Simple. Leave the excuses for the politicians guys
	7 . Cave Dweller 03 Aug 2012 12:11 AM Nothing sells a book like saying something controversial. I really like NZ but one thing they must learn is to stop making excuses and making things up when they lose. Maybe the rugby mad public should be more forgiving. 91 - Organizers scheduling it on a sabbath ruling Michael Jones out 95 - Food poisoning 99 - Frenching grabbing their testicles and getting away with it 2003 - Missed that excuse 2007 - Match Fixing Only two times there were no silly far fetched excuses was when they won it how surprising. 95 Fud of food poisoning no one care to look what is the country with the highest food poisoning figures in the world. Yes that is NZ. Easy to use a illness that is well familiar to them and then make up things as it go along. Jeff Wilson blowing chunks is not a NZ team poisoned. Maybe they should start look at themselves and realized they lost in all those world cup games because they went into all of them without a plan B. When their game didn't work out for them they did not know what to do. Simple. Leave the excuses for the politicians guys
	6 . taniwharugby 02 Aug 2012 06:15 PM Henry is entitled to discuss his thoughts and emotions after probably the most trying period of his coaching career in his biography, no point lying about it.
	5 . Real Deal 01 Aug 2012 01:59 PM It's just his (Graham Henry) opinion but I think that Barnes wasn't up to it. Sice then he's had more controversy over his refing. Not blowing up a penalty for the final 60 minutes.. while the AB's had most of the possession is just crazy. Lawrence had a shocker in the 2011 RWC between SA & Aussie.. at least he had the balls to admit it. Barnes didn't??
	4 . WC Allstars 01 Aug 2012 12:42 AM Referees are only human and I feel touchline technology and the TMO should play a bigger role in the outcome of events. If a referee has "missed" something(forward pass, illegal play, etc.), the TMO should have the authority to contact the referee and advise him to stop the play. Depending on the offence, a scrum would be the best possible solution with possession being handed over in the process.
	3 . Damage 31 Jul 2012 07:58 PM Match fixing...Possible, but not likely. This aint cricket. Mud ref...Probable, should never have been there in the first place. At the end of the day, its an opinion. Henry is still the man.
	2 . NZwillwin2015RWC 30 Jul 2012 11:31 PM Wayne Barnes is either a cheat or totally incompetent and never should have reffed again. Lawrence was shocking in 2011 and Derek Bevan was even worse in 1995. I back Sir Graham Henry 100%. He's the greatest coach of all time.

Page

Not registered yet? Register Now to be able to post comments.
Already registered? Login Here

TESTRUGBY.com © FitSurfer Fantasy Games Limited. Private information collected for this website is governed by our Privacy Policy {1} ##LOC[OK]## {1} ##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]## {1} ##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
Home \| Fantasy Rugby \| Rugby Wiki \| Talk Rugby \| Account \| More Info Rugby Rants \| Socialise \| Discussion Board \| Rugby Blogs