All Blacks: Fear not, Ted knows best

Graham Henry may be proud of his players, but his charges are wary of the consequences if they ever let him down. Photo / Getty Images

Depp down, and in some cases, not so deep down, most of the All Blacks are scared of Graham Henry. They call him Ted, like to have a bit of banter with him but when he talks, they listen.

They listen because they fear letting him down. They fear what the training week will hold if they haven't given the best of themselves.

They fear hearing honest but harsh assessments of their work and that is what Henry gives them. And really they fear Henry because they respect him and at the heart of all this is a desire from the players to keep that mutual.

It's that fear that has given the All Blacks a much-needed edge on this tour. Henry has restored the forwards to a more cohesive and aggressive unit simply by being who he is.

The training ground now carries a different vibe. For much of the last few years, Henry has been a peripheral figure, patrolling the sidelines deep in thought.

For the last five weeks, he's been in the thick of it; hands-on, occasionally barking, and the forwards especially have sharpened their work.

Henry is in many ways similar to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. He's fiercely proud and protective of his players in public but no soft touch in private.

There is a bit of the same dour demeanour the Scot has, a cold exterior that can be unsettling. It's more a fa ade; the protective wrapper of the driven. But it can be daunting nonetheless.

"He can be scary," says Mils Muliaina who was also a pupil at Kelston Boys' when Henry was headmaster. "I suppose for new guys coming in he can be. But I have known him for a long time. He can be pretty scary with that demeanour he has but deep down inside I think he knows he has a soft side."

It's that sweet and sour combination that makes Henry a challenging beast. There can be a wink at the training ground and a quiet word in the ear that builds a player up and then a blast, as there was earlier this year that breaks them down.

Again, like Ferguson, Henry can strip the paint off the walls if he has to - which he felt he did at half-time in Christchurch this year when the All Blacks produced that memorably bad first-half effort.

It was a volley that left newcomer Isaac Ross quaking, even 30 minutes after the test. "I was behind Ted so I didn't get it as direct as Zaccy [Ross] did," recalls Muliaina who was captain that night.

"That's how he can be. In that Christchurch test we obviously didn't play like an All Black team should and at half-time he was ready to let loose. But he's got a soft side as well which people don't really see."

No one in that changing room wanted to face another 10 minutes like that, which is a major reason why the forwards are performing that little bit more effectively and cohesively. Now they are under the direct control of Henry - it has given them a focus that was perhaps missing. Henry carries that little bit of distance from the players. He is friendly but not a friend.

"You don't want to let Ted down," says Muliaina. "There is no hiding either. He analyses the game and he tells you how it is, which can be scary."

For an old dog like Brad Thorn there is not so much fear as respect for Henry. The former Brisbane Bronco played for many years under the legendary Wayne Bennett and Thorn sees similarities between his former NRL coach and Henry.

The All Black lock says his perception is distorted slightly by age. At 34, he's been around for long enough to be comfortable in his own role and not worry too much. He can understand, however, that younger players could easily be unnerved by Henry.

"It's a bit different for me because I have been around for a while," says Thorn. "I am pretty comfortable with Ted because I know what I am trying to achieve and I know what he is trying to achieve, but I think if you were a young guy, you might feel that way.

"I think every coach has got to have a bit of distance and I think he does it very well.

"But Wayne [Bennett] more so. He's definitely a guy who can make you uncomfortable and I think that is great for young men. A coach needs to be able to talk to his players and sometimes you need to have that presence.

"A lot of the time it is good stuff but sometimes you need to be able to give a serve. Wayne has definitely got that and Ted has got that to a certain extent as well."

Whatever barrage the All Blacks faced this morning in Marseilles , in their heads during the game, sub-consciously maybe, would have been the knowledge if they didn't front, their coach was going to be much scarier than the French.