Henry speaks out against tours of duty

Graham Henry walked along Manly beach yesterday, on one of those busy T-shirt-wearing winter Sundays in Sydney. With the pine trees on one side and the breakers disturbing a sea which otherwise looked like glass, he said he reflected on what he called the honour and privilege of coaching the Lions, on the highs and lows of an emotional rollercoaster, on the friends made and the life defining life-defining experiences, but he always came back to one thing. They lost the Test series.

More than ever these Lions appear to have been consumed by the winning and the losing of the Test series. Too much, so it seemed. Now, in a complete break with tradition, both Henry and Donal Lenihan will recommend that henceforth Lions tours will no longer include midweek games. Henry even went so far as to suggest that there only be two or three warm-up games before a three-Test series, and that the squad be reduced to around 28.

Such controversial recommendations, which go against the whole ethos of the Lions concept, will undoubtedly fuel the feeling that the 2001 Lions management somehow failed to respect and revive the spirit of Lions tours.

Yet Henry was also recognising the reality of modern day demands on Lions players, and especially English-and Welsh-based players/based in England and Wales.

"There are a number of people who want their pound of flesh," he said repeatedly yesterday in a reflective, one-man press conference at the team hotel before pointing to Austin Healey having played over 50 matches. "That is ridiculous when you compare that with other unions. It doesn't make any sense. But you become a realist and I don't see that changing."

Lenihan had said on Saturday evening: "The whole structure of Lions tours has to be looked at in the professional era. If we're going to play a tour of this intensity at the end of a domestic season, we have to build in more time. Whether you can have midweek games through the tour is a major issue. Players need more time to recover. It's becoming very difficult to tour and play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday."

However, there would be many downsides to the Lions adopting a curtailed, win-at-all-costs tour. In short, it would just become another rugby tour. It would lose many of its unique qualities. It and would also lose much of its appeal, not least to the travelling thousands who have given Lions' tours such an economic boon.

Nonetheless, Henry did make a very valid point which players, and just as pertinently agents, will have to take into consideration more often in the future. "They're going to have to look after their own welfare, because if they don't look after their own welfare their shelf life is going to be very short."

The suspicion lurks that the Lions management, in each of them wanting their pound of flesh and in the oppressive desire for a series win, also the management over-trained the players. And all the moaning from players didn't reflect well on the management's authority, though maybe it' s it's also a reflection on worsening team values and the greater individuality and selfishness of modern professionals.

This was given an added twist by Healey in a column in The Guardian which was regurgitated in by the all-too-willing Australian media on Saturday morning. The Leicester Lip had a few cheap shots at Pat Rafter, an Australian God right now, calling his and calling called his bΩte noir noire from the ACT game, Justin Harrison, an ape and a plod.

Healey also asked aloud what should be done with the Australian male, having given his opinion on the Australian female and children, before declaring: "Up yours Australia."

This begs the question: is Austin Healey's brain connected to his mouth?

Healey may be disciplined for his comments, according to Henry, and in response, Harrison said: "Austin Healey wasn't playing. He doesn't seem to have a strong command of the English language if he calls me a plod. There's not too many syllables in that word. I am happy with that game and he can think about the game he should have played."

Funny, these Aussies tend to get the last word in.