All Blacks coach Graham Henry continued with his squad rotation policy by announcing three changes to the New Zealand team for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup \ Tri Nations finale.
The New Zealand public have started to question his tactics after some uncharacteristically poor showings from the All Blacks in recent weeks. There is a feeling that the team are not getting a chance to gel sufficiently because of the weekly changes to the lineup.
Henry, however, defended his policy and believes it is the best strategy for preparing his team for the Rugby World Cup.
“If you have got 30 guys in France for 57 days and some people don’t play any rugby, I think that would break the team apart as a unit.
Â
“So I think we have got to keep everyone happy as much as we can and keep everybody on the ball and everybody involved and I think that will pull the unit together and make sure the spirit is there.
“And also, as I continue to say, in your so-called number-one line-up if you get an injury and you have to replace that person and say it is a semi-final in the World Cup or a final, and you get a key player injured and the other guy has not played for three months, we would be shot by you and everybody else.
“So we just have to be intelligent in what we do here and make sure we get the balance right, what is right for the spirit of the group and make sure if someone does get injured that we have another player who can take his place,” said the All Blacks coach.
There has been a lack of cohesion in the AB side – just look at all the dropped and missed passes last week.