KEY POINTS:
There are plenty of people across New Zealand's extended rugby fraternity who, hand on heart, don't really like All Black coach Graham Henry.
There is, however, barely a soul on these islands who doesn't respect him. Even those whom he wronged in his earlier career when he could be brusque, acerbic and inappropriately sarcastic can see past the sometimes clumsy interpersonal skills and agree that great leaders don't have to win popularity contests.
Henry, after all, is not paid to make friends. His job is to deliver results and since taking over from John Mitchell in December 2003, Henry has fulfilled the core component of his brief.
In 39 tests under Henry (before this morning's encounter in South Africa) the All Blacks have won 35. That's a win ratio of almost 90 per cent - easily the highest of any international coach in the professional era.
But his reign has been far more significant than just winning more tests than his predecessors. History will have failed to accurately evaluate Henry's contribution and his ability as a leader if the focus is confined merely to statistics.
New Zealanders have a predilection for judging All Black coaches solely on their results at the World Cup. But whatever happens in October, Henry deserves to walk away from the job with an appropriate level of recognition. His methods shouldn't be considered flawed if they don't yield a a silver mug for this indisputable reason: the All Blacks in 2007 are far better equipped for success than the All Blacks of 1999 and 2003 ever were.
And they are far better equipped because Henry has led a cultural revolution that has fixed much that was wrong with the national team.
He, like the other All Black coaches in the professional era, recognised that within the hulking frames of the players lurked underdeveloped personalities, ill-equipped to cope with the massive public expectation.
He inherited superstar All Blacks who couldn't boil an egg but were expected to be leaders and role models.
Henry, though, unlike other coaches in the professional era, developed strategies to mend the shortcomings of the players and has tried to arm them with the skills they need to become better rugby players and better people.
Taking definitive action marks Henry as the Winston Churchill of his day - the man who succeeded a host of Neville Chamberlains who saw the threat but didn't know how to deal with it.
Henry and his management team felt that if they did the same old things they would most likely get the same old results and the deep-running psychological flaw that made the All Blacks eternally vulnerable would never be healed.
They came to that conclusion at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, in August 2004 where they witnessed the All Blacks capitulate under pressure as they had done a week earlier in Sydney.
In both those venues the All Blacks needed leaders and no one stood up. Enough was enough and when the All Blacks arrived home later that month they began a process of change that was to be the most significant in their 101-year history.
Most of Henry's adult life before becoming a professional coach in 1996 had been spent in education. Which might explain why the mantra of his reign has been "Better people make better All Blacks".
As coach of Auckland in the amateur days he had seen how the likes of Sean Fitzpatrick and Zinzan Brooke put the leadership skills they had built in their careers to good use on the rugby field.
By 2004, none of Henry's players had experienced any other life than that of a professional rugby player. It was an unreal environment that didn't foster problem-solving skills. It crushed initiative and built individuals who were too easily mocked for their reliance on cliches and confusion when asked about anything that didn't involve an oval ball.
Henry was adamant the players needed to broaden their horizons so he pushed them towards vocational work, part-time study and meaningful hobbies. Outside interests were vital to not only break the monotony of the rugby cycle but to nurture new, relevant skills.
Some players under Henry have failed to grasp the importance of growing as people and remain the epitome of the sports-jock stereotype. Most, though, have relished that encouragement to expand their frontiers. Senior player Leon MacDonald says: "We have [sport psychologist] Gilbert Enoka who helps us to become more rounded people off the field. He makes sure we have got good, balanced lifestyles, that we have got good interests away from rugby so that we are not one dimensional.
"That has definitely been a focus of this campaign since Graham has been involved and I think it has made a huge difference."
The "better people" mantra has been backed with a concerted effort to stamp out the binge-drinking culture that has been endemic in the All Blacks throughout the professional age. Henry disliked the institutionalised court sessions where All Blacks drank heavily after a test. Those sessions gave the message it was all right to overindulge and that booze could serve as a reward for hard work.
The sessions had to go.
Empowerment is all the rage in the corporate world and became so within the All Blacks from August 2004.
For 50 years the team's environment was coach-driven. Players didn't have to think for themselves. They were told what to do and when to do it. Not surprisingly, when they were on the field and forced to make decisions on their own, many players struggled.
Henry decided to change the model and give the players unprecedented responsibility by creating an 11-man leadership group. He took the simple view that making strong decisions off the field would lead to better decisions being made on it. These senior players were empowered to construct their own parameters, shape the team culture and determine the codes and ethics by which they would live.
As All Black manager Darren Shand recalls: "The initial driver [for the leadership group] was looking at teams prior to our tenure and seeing poor decisions being made under pressure and people not being able to react under pressure.
"Probably in our first campaign we didn't really see any shift in that area. It really came home to roost in that test in Johannesburg which we lost. We saw the sense of nationalism the Springboks had that really galvanised them and we didn't feel that we had. It was a combination of getting that leadership right and us understanding ourselves as New Zealanders."
Senior players had been given powers under previous regimes but never to this extent.
The leadership group was given responsibility to determine acceptable standards on a range of issues including drinking limits and also the authority to discipline those who stepped out of line.
This had the dual effects of treating the players as adults while forcing any transgressors to front their peer group - a far more emotional exercise than being bawled out by management.
Very few have transgressed and the All Blacks of 2007 are probably the most professional of any era in terms of their lifestyle.
It is no coincidence that Ali Williams went off the rails with the Blues earlier this year only to knuckle down and produce the goods when he came into the All Black camp.
As current squad member Nick Evans says: "This is an environment in which you want to succeed."
One of the other key factors in shaping the environment was the decision to ask the players to evaluate exactly what and whom they felt they were representing.
Henry and his team sensed there was a negative culture - that players had only a vague notion of what it meant to be an All Black and it was built around a fear of failure, a pressure to not stuff up what the guys before had built.
Sport psychologist Gilbert Enoka was brought in to help identify what it meant to be an All Black and to be a New Zealander. It was all very New Age. There was role playing, there was soul searching and there were also confessional seminars where players revealed their strengths and weaknesses.
By the end of that process the players had a deeper understanding of each other and the jersey they wore, which led them to conclude they should develop a new haka to embody what they stood for.
The Kapa O'Pango haka was first performed in August 2005 and was supposed to reflect the new identity and ethnic mix of the side.
Controversy has raged since that first performance because of the dubious throat-slitting climax. What's not up for debate is the fact the All Blacks of 2007 have a greater understanding of what the Silver Fern on their jerseys means to them.
Henry himself would insist his regime change is still a work in progress. Late last year he was concerned that too many players struggled to entertain themselves when they travelled, hinting at a frustration that some are still too engrossed in the rugby life.
But Henry can look back on the last three-and-a-half years and feel a sense of accomplishment. In his time the All Blacks have frequently come under pressure and not cracked.
Players such as Richie McCaw, Aaron Mauger, Mils Muliaina, Byron Kelleher and Chris Jack have grown more articulate and composed in the public eye.
Perhaps most significantly, the All Blacks have ceased to be a rugby team under Henry and are now a professional sports brand.
The players are acutely aware, as they never were under Henry's predecessor, of the full range of their responsibilities to sponsors, broadcasters, media and fans.
There was a sullen, glowering reluctance from some players to front the media under Mitchell. There was also an obvious vibe of couldn't care less when sponsors asked for their pound of flesh.
The players now say the right things and give the right impressions, which is why Italian truck maker, Iveco, became the team's first global sponsor last year.
The Iveco deal, believed to be worth more than $2 million was proof the All Blacks are a global phenomenon and marketing director Alessandro Ciccetti says he knew the fit was perfect after he met Henry and his coaching team.
He said: "What was important was what the All Blacks represented in terms of values. It was clear they believed in those values."
All those values are going to be tested in the most severe way come the World Cup. They might not hold up. The old cracks might appear and if the All Blacks fail again, the nation should think back to these words from MacDonald: "We can only keep chipping away and hope that we are building up mechanisms to deal with that pressure. But we feel we are making progress. I think we are a stronger team now."
Rule of thumb
Key lessons from the reign of King Henry
* Graham Henry as All Black coach has done away with the traditional hierarchical sporting model and empowered his players by creating a leadership group that has unprecedented input into team affairs.
* He has kicked out the booze culture by banning the institutionalised court sessions.
* The former teacher introduced the mantra "better people make better All Blacks" and encouraged the players to broaden their horizons beyond rugby, exhorting them to study and take on vocational work and meaningful hobbies.
* He helped the All Blacks become a global sporting brand and was instrumental in securing a multimillion-dollar investment from Italian firm Iveco.
* He made players more aware of their responsibilities to external shareholders and improved the team's image by reconnecting it with the public.
* He has built a strong relationship with the executive team at the Rugby Union, which has resulted in the board backing his every move.
Empowering the players - what they do:
* Set the alcohol limit for any given night.
* Help determine protocols for dealing with media, sponsors, fans.
* Assess management's performance and provide feedback about training sessions and gameplans.
* Recommend punishments for those who break protocol.
Building better people:
* Richie McCaw has gained his pilot's licence.
* Anton Oliver is heading a lobby group opposing the construction of a wind farm in Central Otago.
* Nick Evans is a qualified physiotherapist.
* Conrad Smith has completed a law degree and worked for a legal firm last year while he recuperated from a broken leg.
* Dan Carter has opened fashion retail outlets.
* Byron Kelleher launched a plastic pallet business.
