Coaches go all touchy-feely

Behind The Lions: On the eve of the biggest encounter the game has seen since the World Cup final, in one sense you had to admire Clive Woodward for doing it his way, even if this was also very much a reproduction of that two-year-old formula.

In the process, he has raised the stakes not only for the team but also for himself.

Yet Woodward doesn't do self-doubt. Nor, one imagines, does he countenance it in any of his employees, and the utter conviction they share that the Lions had prepared ideally and were primed to win has almost been infectious.

The "coach watch" has been an entertaining aside during the phoney war, even if it may prompt the words "get" and "life". Not only this observer has ventured that Eddie O'Sullivan's mood and profile seemed to dip in the last week and a half, not least because he seemed to be kept under wraps from the public until Wednesday's team announcement.

There have also been signals that Woodward and O'Sullivan have not been seeing eye to eye, but yesterday they were clearly striving to present a unified front, with O'Sullivan looking particularly cheery.

"Test rugby is a big step up - it's different," said the Ireland coach. "We've talked about the pressure in a Test game and I think it's a great word for a Test game, because this is where we all want to be now. This is where the coaches and players want to be now; the ultimate test. Mentally I think we're ready for it, and physically we're ready for it and that's the two most important things."

Twice Woodward said he agreed with Eddie that this was where all the coaches wanted to be, and repeated his belief that he had assembled the best group of 22 players for this Test and the best team of coaches.

O'Sullivan was also, of course, being true to the Woodward mantra. Prior to today's first Test in Christchurch, Woodward had not only drawn on the nucleus of the English side that won here in Wellington two years ago and won the World Cup, but audaciously put it up to the All Blacks by repeatedly asserting that this would be a "high-pressure" game.

In his opening address at last night's eve-of-match press conference, he used the word "pressure" three times, and he repeated it again and again in discussion.

Though he diplomatically declined to say it in remotely so many words, the implication was that the All Blacks were chokers who would, true to form, crack under pressure.

"Yeah, we're pressured," responded Graham Henry at his eve-of-match press conference earlier in the day, with more than a hint of sarcasm. "Tell Clive that. We're really pressured."

Tana Umaga was asked the same question.

"Not as much heat as I'm feeling here. No, not at the moment. We're pretty relaxed and we're looking forward to getting out there and playing. It's been a long time coming, and I'm pretty excited actually."

A striking feature of this tour has been Henry's whole demeanour, especially compared to four years ago. He is far more his laconic self, cracking one-liners and ensuring an almost comic, easy-going atmosphere at all his press briefings right up until yesterday. But, not for the first time, he spoke candidly of the mistakes he had made as Lions coach.

"I think it was the biggest learning experience that I went through as a rugby coach and I'm still learning. I over-focused on winning rather than player development. I should have got more touchy-feely, I guess. It was a New Zealand culture working with a European group of people, so it was quite different, and I did things on that tour that they hadn't experienced before, and I'd probably do them again but I would explain why I was doing them and make sure they understood. Whether they accepted - that might have been different. Yeah, great learning experience, a lot of good memories, a few scars, but pleased I went through it."

Asked if the Europeans were more "touch-feely", Henry jokingly leant across and put an arm around Umaga, who duly reciprocated.

"Are you surprised we touch each other a bit here? No, I just think we've been brought up differently. Perhaps the New Zealand player is a bit more practical in that way. It's just the way they've been brought up.

"It was just different from what I'd experienced in coaching Auckland and the Blues. They were very much into fairness and everybody getting an equal opportunity, and I was into winning a Test series, and wasn't sensitive enough to the team that was playing in the midweek before the Test. But that was well documented and I'm sure I'm boring people here, so we'll move on."

Here he operates in even more of a pressure vacuum, as head man to a sports team, a brand, a business, nay, perhaps the greatest manifestation of New Zealand's wellbeing. The sense of expectation probably couldn't be greater in any other country, on him, his coaching staff and his players. But Henry embraces it.

"We've discussed that over 12 months, not just about this series but all rugby we play. And I think it's very important the guys can enjoy the contest and go out and express themselves, and not be inhibited by that expectation of the public and the pressure of rugby being the number one sport in this country.

"It's a very good thing that we have got that situation in this country - that rugby is the number one sport. It's almost a religion, and we're very lucky as a rugby nation to have that, so we've got to make the most of that. We're not going to change it, are we?"