Midweek ride soft says Henry

Graham Henry at a press conference yesterday. Picture / Brett Phibbs

The All Blacks carefully threaded a clip into the Bren gun yesterday and peeled off a few rounds at the Lions' deficiencies.

It was time to pierce a few theories; time for coach Graham Henry to submit his tour portrayal to his adversaries.

The Lions had endured an "indifferent" tour and their record would have been worse had they met some serious opposition outside the tests.

"I think the Lions have been fortunate on this tour they have not played any strong provincial teams," Henry said.

"If they had played the Crusaders, the Hurricanes, the Highlanders, the Blues and the Chiefs, who would know what the result would have been? I'll just leave you with that thought," he told a media conference yesterday.

Henry's measured taunt came after a question asking about the Lions' repeated test failures in New Zealand except for the 1971 tour.

He mentioned the All Blacks' global dominance and the strength of the major provinces such as Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington and Otago as reasons for those Lions' struggles.

In the past there used to be no let-up.

Henry then suggested that the present tourists had a softer midweek ride compared with their predecessors, and even compared with the Lions side he took to Australia in 2001.

On that tour they played the three Super 12 sides and Australia A.

The present Lions midweek side had played with a great deal of spirit but previous Lions expeditions had played the best and perhaps that sort of itinerary was necessary to cope with the intensity of international rugby.

These Lions have won every game outside the two tests and the NZ Maori, but their modest provincial foes were largely shorn of their All Blacks.

Only Bay of Plenty and Wellington had qualified for the semifinals of the NPC first division.

Quizzed then why All Blacks had been removed from their provinces, Henry said it was common sense as part of the programme to build for the internationals. It was difficult to release players.

There were bouts of repartee between the media and Henry, asking him how he would cope for this final test without the motivational work from Alastair Campbell and how his 2001 Lions rated with the 2005 version.

The All Blacks coach delivered a final barb with the observation that there had been some fine rugby in the Six Nations, where Wales had played with a great style and attitude.

The inference was clear - to their detriment, the Lions had ignored the Welsh players and methods.

"But it's swings and roundabouts," Henry said.

"We are having a couple of good test matches and there is no guarantee that will continue. We just have to keep working at it."

Veteran Lion Ian McGeechan, who oversaw the midweekers on his sixth tour as a coach or player, said he thought the current tour was at least a week too short.

He hoped the 2009 trip to South Africa would have more matches.