Dear Mr Henry, just a quick note on the ABs

Dear Mr Henry,
As a sometimes critic of yourself I feel it only right that I should congratulate you and your All Blacks team for the utter humiliation of the Lions in the first two tests of the current series.
I freely admit to being one of many who doubted the ability of the ABs to put away Sir Clive and his travelling party of hundreds in such a comprehensive and commanding manner.
I mean weren't they supposed to be the best prepared and selected Lions team ever to leave the United Kingdom?
And in their leader didn't they have a coach without peer anywhere in the rugby world?
A man whose magical wand would produce strategies which would reduce opposing sides to rabble.
A clever, articulate fellow who would keep the media constantly entertained with his wit and honesty in his victory speeches.
Someone who would be 10 foot tall when the tour ended, truly a knight in shining armour.
It is to your undying credit Mr Henry that unlike us mere mortals you were not fooled by the rhetoric from abroad.
I suppose having been a humbled Lions coach yourself you knew better than the rest of us just how difficult it can be to prepare a side containing players from four separate countries.
To mix the arrogance of the Poms, the dourness of the Welsh, the causualness of the Irish and the thriftiness of the Scots into a winning combination isn't easy, is it?
I do doubt though Mr Henry whether even you had any notion of just how awful the Lions would be.
I wonder if you had whether you just might have allowed your AB's to play for their provincial teams as well.
Wouldn't you agree that Wellington and Otago teams at full strength would have second rated them too?
I was going to ask you Mr Henry what you thought of the Lions tactical approach but since they don't seem to have one I won't waste your time.
I'll bet you are pleased though to know that if they don't put boot to ball in the hope it will find open spaces they will pass it from one player to the other, running directly across field as they do it.
You wouldn't have had to remind Richie, Jerry and Rodney just how often that made them a target for the good old crash tackle, would you? That and how easy it would be to get to the point of breakdown and turn over possession. They must have been frothing at the mouth at the prospect of consistently creating carnage in the opposition ranks.
I guess too that Daniel was getting heartily sick of hearing of how Jonny was in a class of his own at first-five , just as Chris and Ali (I'm still not convinced about him) must have fired up by all by the bulldust spoken about the physicality of their lineout forwards.
I read somewhere the other day Mr Henry where the Lions were suffering from "over coaching" but when you consider their tactics in the two tests so far you'd have to wonder whether they are being coached at all, wouldn't you?
Talking of coaching, I must say I am thoroughly impressed at how the AB's are being allowed to express themselves in an attacking sense.
It has often frustrated me in the past to see our backs made to play a structured, stereo-typed form of rugby which has seldom allowed them to display their natural flair.
Now you get the feeling that even old hands like Byron, Justin, Tana and Mils are actually out there having fun, no longer worrying about the fact that if they take a risk or two and they don't come off their heads won't be on the chopping block when the next game comes around.
No doubt the next priority for you Mr Henry is to wrap up the present series 3-0 in Auckland.
With all due respect could I suggest that you give Ma'a Nonu a game on the wing because I truly believe he could be a sensation there, especially against this pathetic mob, and I reckon Jono Gibbes deserves a start as well at lock. And wouldn't it be great to see Mehrts back at first-five??..what a fairytale ending to a wonderful international career that would be. And he can kick goals too!
Finally Mr Henry could I be so brave to also issue a word of warning. Remember we finished last in the tri-nations series with the Wallabies and Springboks last year and we need to put that right in 2005.
I have a feeling that will be a much tougher assignment than the Lions, don't you?
Yours in rugby, Gary Caffell.