Rugby: Henry condemns `boorish' crowds

By Wynne Gray

Christchurch-born Wales rugby coach Graham Henry often felt appalled by the uncivil behaviour of crowds in his home city.

While Henry and his Auckland teams enjoyed playing in the stimulating atmosphere generated by crowds in Dunedin and wished for similar responses from Auckland fans, he was highly critical of adult rugby watchers in Christchurch.

Henry offers those thoughts on New Zealand spectators in his book, Graham Henry, The X Factor, which is due to hit the shops later this week.

"Unfortunately I can't offer the same degree of enthusiasm for the city in which I was born and bred, Christchurch, where the spectators were consistently boorish and over the top, to the point of being embarrassing," he says.

"If you won at Dunedin they treated you with respect, but that wasn't the case in Christchurch, where crude banners and personal insults reflected the very opposite.

"Some of the adult behaviour at Lancaster Park (now Jade Stadium) was the worst role model for kids.

"As a person involved in the education system, I recognised that and as a one-time Christchurch citizen always found it most disappointing. It was probably only a minority involved, but they certainly made their presence felt."

Henry had only praise for the Canterbury Crusaders, their coaches and management for the way they fought through to win the 1998 Super 12 title but he could find little endearing about their supporters.

It is a theme further pursued by Henry's wife, Raewyn, later in the book when she also speaks about the despair of returning to her birth area to be confronted by impolite and oafish rugby watchers.

"You'd think with both of us having been born in Christchurch that we'd have a soft spot for Canterbury, but far from it. Because of the animosity of the spectators there, I wouldn't go back," she declares.

"I attended one game at Lancaster Park in 1997 in the company of Zinzan Brooke's partner, Alison Imm, who was wearing an Auckland jacket. Canterbury prevailed - for the first time against Auckland, I might add, in about 15 years - whereupon poor Alison was subjected to intense abuse.

"I felt really embarrassed for her. I don't know what it is about Canterbury crowds but they are, without question, the most unsporting in New Zealand, which is a shame, because the officials and leaders of the Canterbury team are great people."

It was bizarre how the Canterbury supporters, instead of just getting in behind their side, turned their venom and hatred on opposition sides.

That behaviour got so bad at one stage that locals tried to beat up one of the Henrys' sons, Matthew, when he was at university in Christchurch but was found to hail from Auckland.

She says: "I don't know what it is about that part of the world, but I'm embarrassed on occasions to call it my home town."