KEY POINTS:
Exasperated All Black coach Graham Henry has joined the growing list of those lamenting the state of world rugby.
His unprompted sermon yesterday focused on time-wasting in rugby, which he said was hampering his All Black team and detracting from spectators' enjoyment.
In a wide-ranging critique, Henry fingered
collapsed scrums, indecisive officials and real or faked injuries as the culprits from the first test against the French.
Henry ignored his side's high error rate in the game and turned his annoyance on the visitors' time-wasting tactics.
Henry pleaded for rugby to eradicate the gamesmanship which was causing widespread frustration and a general malaise in the sport.
Referee Stu Dickinson set more than 40 scrums at Eden Park, awarded more than 20 penalties, waited for protracted television match official decision-making and dealt with numerous injury breaks - a messy medley which produced a tedious, prolonged international.
All Black hooker Anton Oliver said he found the test difficult to watch because of the repeated stoppages and Henry said 10 resets on the the All Blacks' ball were frustrating - as was the time the match officials took to make decisions on tries.
Late in Saturday's test, there was the quasi-comical sight of four Frenchmen all apparently needing stretcher bearers to get them off Eden Park, before, remarkably, all but captain Pascal Pape were revived.
Those episodes irked Henry and he also criticised the high number of scrum resets.
His address would have been further evidence for the IRB's Law Project Group that it is on the right track with the rule changes it is trialling throughout the world to speed the game up and keep the ball in play.
"Obviously, there are frustrations developing in the game that are more prevalent now than they have been since I've been coaching and that's a wee while," said Henry.
"It's a pity that the game is drifting in this direction because I don't think anyone is keen on that."
Henry thought the go-slow tactics were a deliberate strategy to erode the All Blacks' potency and were also a widespread affliction in the sport.
"It's a problem in the game and it's getting worse and we need to be strong in that area to get it right," he said. "There are a lot of guys lying on the floor, and I think some of them are injured and some of them are not.
"The time guys are taking to get off the floor when they are injured or whatever, to restart the game. There are a lot of people on the floor when referees are trying to restart the game.
"I think it's frustrating the crowd and it's frustrating the players and the television audience."
Henry castigated the French for their reluctance to scrum correctly and forwards coach Steve Hansen said the visitors tried to wheel the scrums consistently because they did not have the power to compete. The laws favoured that kind of negative play.
Henry said: "It's a great game when it's played right and, at the moment, it's deteriorating in quality and that's irritating me."
