All Blacks fear the Henry factor

The All Blacks played down the role of their World Cup-winning former coach, Graham Henry, with the Pumas. However, there was just a hint of trepidation to their reaction.

Henry has revealed the full extent of his involvement with Argentina, admitting he will be sitting in  the visitors' coaches box when they take on New Zealand in a Rugby Championship match in Wellington on Saturday.

It will give the Round Three encounter a decidedly different look.

It took a contractual change to allow it to happen, but Henry's 'advisory role' with the Pumas has suddenly become more hands-on

Henry's successor as All Black coach, Steve Hansen, admitted Henry will improve the Pumas.

"TV gives away everything we do anyway, so if people work hard enough and analyse enough they'll know what you do. There's not too many secrets in the rugby world," he says.

Apparently there's no fuss that Henry’s changed from advising the Pumas coaches to a more hands-on role.

"Well he was never going to be anything other than a hands-on coach so you'd have to expect that when he took over the advising role he'd be a part of it. Something to look forward to isn't it," Hansen said.

NZRU Chief Executive Steve Tew also said he is not worried.

"I mean our guys are moving on, aren't they? They've already taken things to a different level so, we want Argentina to be competitive. I'll let Graham decide whether it's the right thing for him to do."

The exact nature of the All Blacks' World Cup-winning coach's role with the Pumas has been unclear, but Henry said there should be no confusion.

He plans to don an Argentinean tracksuit at training and said he was doing "all he can" to help the touring side prepare for their Test against the team he guided to World Cup glory just 10 months ago.

"You can't misrepresent the role," Henry said, adding: "I'm with the Argentinean side this week and next week and the two games against Australia and New Zealand, as I have been for the previous three weeks.

"Helping with the high performance department and development of rugby is one role and the other is helping the national coaches in the role of coaching the Argentinean side."

Did that extend to wearing team kit?

"Of course, I'm with the Argentinean team and helping them as best I can. They are playing in the best rugby competition in the world and hopefully they can do well."

He didn't expect any negative reaction to his involvement.

"I think the New Zealand public are delighted one of the lesser lights of world rugby are getting some assistance," he said.

"I think it's different to helping coach one of the teams that's traditionally in the top echelon, like England or Australia or South Africa."

Henry's ability to take a full part in Argentina's campaign is because restrictions originally placed on his involvement by the New Zealand Rugby Union no longer apply.

Those had set boundaries around information sharing and the ability to "coach" the side before matches against the All Blacks.

But the NZRU CEO, Tew, confirmed Henry became a free agent after taking up an assistant coaching role with the Blues.

"We had him contracted for two years post World Cup, but his role with the Blues is independent of our coach support for that team, so his contract is with them," Tew said.

"He's off contract with us and ultimately in that regard he's a free agent."

The NZRU's original contract would have precluded Henry from taking a "hands-on" role in the buildup to tests against the All Blacks.

But restraining any former employee's use of intellectual property or expertise for any length of time was "too costly", Tew said.

"The challenge for the current group is to be ahead of the game, so whatever he is able to provide to the Argentineans in terms of our stuff will be stale.

"I think we've seen that in the first five games [under Hansen] anyway."

So are the NZRU uncomfortable with Henry's expanded role this week?

"We wouldn't have been comfortable under the contract we had with him, but he's a free agent and he can make his own calls," Tew said.

"We always envisaged he'd help prepare Argentina for this championship as part of the commitment we made to them coming into the [tournament].

"We wanted them to be able to put their best foot forward and we knew they had a bit of ground to make up."

Of course Tew, and the All Blacks, will be hoping Henry's magic can't close the home team's 33-10 winning margin last time the sides met.

All Black No.8 Kieran Read said it felt strange to know that Henry's renowned analysis skills would be turned on the team he had only recently finished coaching for eight years.

"He's a man who does a lot of preparation and a lot of homework," Read said.

"He obviously knows this team [All Blacks] pretty well so I guess in terms of that point of view, they'll have a few tricks up their sleeve."

It's not quite Hansen versus Henry, but the latter's involvement in the Pumas camp adds an intriguing element to the first Test between the two countries since last year's World Cup quarterfinal.

Henry worked alongside Pumas coach Santiago Phelan for two weeks in June and was in camp with them again last month.

Argentina's players have spoken highly of Henry's influence and their 16-all draw with South Africa in Mendoza suggests they have closed the gap on their Southern Hemisphere peers.

However, Hansen doesn't expect any major changes to the way the South Americans traditionally play.

"Their strengths are their strengths. Most teams play to their strengths and that's a wise thing to do.

"Just as we have our style of game and it hasn't changed much in probably 50 years, you just try to get better at it and they are probably doing the same thing."

Though the tourists will be something of a mystery to the average Kiwi rugby fan, Hansen and his coaches have done their homework.

"It was less than 12 months ago that we played the World Cup against them and what we've seen from them in the Rugby Championship, so there's plenty of info there, it's just making sure we get it right."

Sources: TV NZ, 3 News, Fairfax NZ News & NZ Newswire