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Sir Steve Hansen: Why Graham Henry is ‘invaluable’ to Dave Rennie and will perform a ‘massive’ role before Springboks Test Sir Steve Hansen says that Graham Henry will be “important” to the All Blacks this week and is playing a crucial role for Dave Rennie. New Zealand are preparing for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series opener against the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday, with current head coach Rennie naming his team to tackle South Africa on Thursday. After taking over the reins from Scott Robertson, Rennie recruited the services of 2011 World Cup-winning coach Henry as selector in the team, a role that former fly-half Grant Fox performed for the side for several years. Sir Steve Hansen: Graham Henry’s role with the All Blacks Henry has travelled with the All Blacks squad to South Africa, and Hansen believes that he is offering more than just selection insights and opinions to Rennie and his staff. “He’s a wise old head, and he knows he’s not in charge and he won’t try to be in charge, but he cares a lot and deeply about the jersey. He cares a lot about New Zealand rugby,” Hansen said on the Rugby Unity podcast when asked what contributions Henry will be making. “So it’ll be his wisdom. He will have a wee comment here, and he is a very smart thinker of the game; he understands the game well. A wee word here and there just to soothe the situation, and I’m sure Dave chats to him about certain things from the point of view of a new coach versus a guy who’s done over 100 Test matches – so he’ll be invaluable, and it’s good to see him there.” Henry to work alongside Gilbert Enoka The All Blacks coaching team will surely be tapping into Henry’s knowledge, but ex-Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie believes that he will be playing a crucial role with player management this week too. Rennie is bound to have a host of disappointed players in his squad this week when he names his team for the Test match against the Springboks, and McKenzie predicts that the ex-head coach will be tasked with managing those players. “He’s going to have an important role in the next phase of the tour. They have been playing midweek, Saturday, and there’s been a bunch of games on there, plenty of activity,” he began. “Now, you get to the week, they’re going to, now you’ve got to pick the Test team, and you’ve got a bunch of guys are going to be starting, on the bench, and then you’ve got all the other guys who aren’t, because they’re still going to play the Lions next week. “Everyone theoretically could be in the Test team; now the selectors have got to make decisions, and it’s still a difficult time for those who don’t get picked, so you’ve got to manage that. “I think Henry would be very good in that space in managing that with Gilbert Enoka because there are still games to play and they still got to support the other guys. I’m not talking about deliberate sabotage or anything. I’m just talking about dealing with disappointment because it is a big tour and four Test matches; there’s going to be injuries, opportunities, form, and results.” Players are allowed to be disappointed by Test snub “It’s really, really important,” Hansen agreed. “You can only pick 23 players, so you’ve got to set it up that everybody understands that it’s okay to be disappointed because if you’re not disappointed, you don’t care enough. But it’s not okay then to stay disappointed and sulk about it – it’s about putting the team first. “You’re allowed to be disappointed for a short period of time, and the faster you can get over that, the better you can help the team prepare for this Test match, because their success is your success because you’re part of it. “Getting them to understand that is massive, and Graham can help. Also, the other role that they’ve got to understand is that, okay, I’ve missed out on the 23, but we’ve got five, six days until kick-off and I’ve got to be ready because someone is going to get injured. “If I’m not ready and I don’t know my role and I go out and play poorly, then what have I done? I’ve actually confirmed to the selectors that I wasn’t ready to play. I wasn’t good enough to be in the Test team, but if I get myself ready and the opportunity arises and I play really well, I now put some pressure back on the selectors. Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust. “The biggest thing players and fans have to understand is… there is only a certain number of people that can select the team; Graham Henry, Dave Rennie and the other coaches have got – that’s the selectors. They’re the only people who can pick the team. The players can’t control whether they get selected or not. All they can control is their day-to-day performance and their day-to-day attitude to how they go about getting better. “If you have a team full of people, whether it’s 30 or 100 people, if everybody in that squad is there trying to get better and controlling what they can do, you’ve got a chance because you need everybody to be on board. You can’t do it by yourself.”