Sir Graham Henry on the Black Ferns celebrating at his house. Video / Coast
The Black Ferns have celebrated their World Cup victory with a party at Sir Graham Henry’s Waiheke Island pad.
Henry told Coast FM this morning the team was a “fantastic group of individuals” who loved each other’s company and didn’t need any entertaining last night.
New Zealand beat England in front of a sold-out Eden Park audience to capture another Women’s Rugby World Cup, the team’s sixth title.
Henry, who has been working in a mentoring role with the team for the past six months, said he had so much respect for what the Black Ferns had accomplished.
“They’ve shown the country what resilience is all about, and we’re always talking about mental health well these girls have given an example of how to be resilient and they’ve built that resilience by playing rugby over the years. And it hasn’t always been easy for them, so they’ve had to be very determined to carry on with the game.”
He said it has been “pretty special” working with the Black Ferns and believed his biggest influence on the squad was on the style of their game.
“Great credit to Wayne Smith and the coaches, great credit to the team, you can’t speak highly enough.”
The atmosphere on game day at Eden Park was unlike anything Henry had seen before - including coaching the All Blacks to a World Cup win at the stadium in 2011, he told the hosts.
“You’ve got a lot of families there, mum and dad bringing the kids, grandma and grandad bringing the kids, some of them weren’t the usual Eden Park rugby supporters they were just there to see this group of women play rugby.”
At the end of the night, he said the fans didn’t want to leave and the team didn’t get out of the dressing shed until 11.30pm, two hours after the game wrapped up.
Captain Ruahei Demant still had her boots on at 11.15, he told the show.
