Graham Henry (England obsessive) : Team Care

Im not sure if this si from a different interview to the one where he critisized England for being too conservative but hes now layed into Lancasters hard nut stance on discipline :

http://www.espnscrum.com/six-nations-2012/rugby/story/158505.html

Our strategy would have been to assemble Team Care. Call it a duty of 'Care' if you like. We would have given him all the support that we could make available. The approach would have been the same with Armitage.

"Unfortunately England's new management seem to have drawn an immediate line. They have adopted a zero tolerance attitude. It just doesn't work with today's generation. Look how many chances Sir Alex Ferguson gives his young players and he rarely disciplines them too publicly."

Now its pretty obvious why Lancaster took his public approach, he had to be seen to be doing the right things and has very strongly drawn a dividing line between himself and what went on previously. The fairly extreme nature of the Armitage and Care cases ( criminal cases) of course made his sacrifical lambs quite easy to find.
Henry though dealt with his problem children very differently.

Lancaster does seem super keen to stamp his authority on the team and establish himself as one not to be triffled with. Again understandbale given his relative lack of natural authority and experience, its much easier for a legendary figure to walk in having already earnt respect and start telling players whats what and making changes to the way they act. Johsnons tried much the same when he first came in, being keen to lay down a marker that the softly softly and favourite grandchild approach of Ashton wasnt gpoing ato happen anymore. He soon lost control of that, even to the point of Chris Ashton openly mocking him by ignoring his warnings about swan dives.

Henrys approach clealry worked in the case of New Zealand. Would it work for England? Who knows. But given the level of public outrage whipped up by the media ( egged on by the Andrew factions leaks trying to ensure the fallout fell on Johnsons and the players) over England players antics and the level of discpline I dont see he had much choice in how he dealt with the squad other than public executions. Maybe getting Gary Neville in sooner to explain to Armitage that wearing the England shirt does not mean one has to get into baroom brawls sooner may have helped, who knows.
I do hope he heeds this advice and tries to deal with the issues before they arise as well as once they have arisen. And to be fair there are signs of that. Hes talked of creating a leadership group, and the mid twenties players have been told that they are expected to be the leadership of the team looking forward 4 years when they will be the seaosned pros going into their second world cup. Ashton has been in the press saying hes realised he needs to grow up and cut out the silliness, Croft and Hartley talking about their roles in mentoring the new faces.

Theres a lot to do to build this team back up. I hope Care and Armitage react better than Cipriani did when (Brian) Ashton dropped him the first time and learn their lesson, although signs are Armitage is done with England and will take the payday in France. Its a shame, hes been a good player more often than not and one of the few who produced something worthwhile on the pitch at the world cup. It is true to say that if you are too harsh on some players they will just walk away thinking its not worth it, especially if they feel harshly or unfairy treated.
Maybe England also need to start looking at the discilpline issues down the food chain, start brainwashing these kids at the under 18s level. Put something in their food, I dunno.

Its rather ironic Henry calls is Team Care of course.

Operation Care Bear and Free Hugs for Armitage Appeal it sounds like he´s advocating.

I could accept him talking about England´s game. But I think it´s ill-advised to talk about in-house discipline. Looking at Dagg, Jane and Guilford for example (or Norm Hewett from years back) and it´s true the NZRFU took a more conciliatory approach. But there´s still a drinking culture evident in NZ rugby and just because we won the RWC doesn´t change that. I think he´d have been wiser to leave these comments to himself. Now that he´s retired from the game, maybe he feels he can express himself on any subject. I think though he´d be wiser to stick to the rugby comments.

His approach has obviously worked (to a degree) with NZ but he didnt seem to take much care of our players when he was given the Lion's tour

At least he waited till he retired unlike Gatland....

I guess its inevitable that he will get asked questions about the 6 nations and England by British journos. Hes answered honestly.
It is a bit odd hes giving press conferences though, is he doing something special at the minute or just on an ego tour?
Trying to get the Lions job again?

I think he´s bored personally. The job of NZ coach is an extremely demanding one and requires a lot of energy and devotion. Now that´s been taken away and all play and no work make Ted a dull boy.

Then again, the British journos have no matches to write about and need to shift copies before the ball is kicked off so jumping on this bandwagon and devoting pages to this irrelevance to get some manufactured reaction looks a good way to go.

In which case, we´ve been caught hook, line and sinker...

True kia... And we're devoting posts to it.
But...with the 6N start and the welly sevens here this weekend we'll have tons to destroy next week!

Some suggested descriptions for englands team care programme-

-Care, Recovery and Assist Programme.
-Sensitive Healing and Improvement Training.

We run the following courses-
-Assist Armitage- a 12 step programme
-Facilitate Urgent Care with Kindness User Programme.

All couses run at the Cambridge University of New Technology..

Gotta love those anagrams...

anyone know of anymore useful programmes for our brittle youth?

If we are doing acronyms here how about a dual headline:

Andy Robinson Slates England &
Henry Opposes Lancaster's EPS Strategy

NZ has a history of trying to support,and continues to support players with problems. Jimmy Cowan and Zac Guildford are two examples,Lancaster has
obviously taken a hard line.THAT may well be on RFU instructions post the RWC
discipline problems.
History will show which is the right approach,who knows.
Hopefully it won`t distract Englands build up,with up to 8 new caps this Season
could be VERY Interesting indeed.

Sorry chequered...acronyms. Too excited from the previous nights activities.
Love it... Especially where GH represents the 'hole'...!

Given the poor discipline shown by the England squad over the last two months Lancaster had no choice but to drop Care and Armitage immediatey. Remember that it was actually Care's second drink related offence in a short space of time and few could argue that Armitage hasn't had enough chances!

If Lancaster had been leniant and taken the soft, supportive stance, and another player had 'messed up' then he'd have been curcified by the press for not being firm enough.

Rugby is a squad game and too many people have failed to behave as they should have done - unfortunately that now means that no-one is able to get a second chance for the time being.

I like the zero tolerance approach, i really do. These people are professionals and should behave in such a manner. Sometimes its a slap on the wrist like this and the behind the scenes helping of these players that makes the world of difference.

Graeme Henry is certainly a very bored man now though

eirebilly wrote:I like the zero tolerance approach, i really do. These people are professionals and should behave in such a manner. Sometimes its a slap on the wrist like this and the behind the scenes helping of these players that makes the world of difference.

totally agree - and just because you drop players it doesn't mean that you can't help them as well if needed.

I would imagine that there is help behind the scenes. If one of my employees has a drinking problem (or something similar), i put them on non active and then provide them as much help and support that can be realised behind the scenes.