The pleasures of touring New Zealand…

Beside the waters of Wellington harbour last Saturday morning, as a sleet storm threw its worst at me, I pounded through the large puddles, the water running off me in rivulets as I headed for home at the end of a training run.

Suddenly, a voice was barking at me: ‘Faster, faster: harder, harder’. I thought the face, clad in waterproof gear, looked familiar. The All Blacks coach was out for a morning stroll - yes, even in these conditions – with his wife.

Maybe, in fact, that was one of the few times Graham Henry could escape the unrelenting spotlight, even if it meant I couldn’t escape the New Zealand coach’s voluble urgings. For Henry is a man subjected to the withering gaze and ferocious criticism of the New Zealand public.

I should think there are mass murderers inhabiting the prisons of this country who get a better press than the All Blacks coach.

His ‘crime’? To be re-appointed national coach despite the World Cup failure last October.

Now I’ve never subscribed to the theory that if you don’t like the message you shoot the messenger.

Henry had to re-apply for the top job - it was the New Zealand Rugby Union that re-appointed him. Isn’t that where any general ire should be directed?

And anyway, is this withering, constant barrage of criticism justified? Under Henry, New Zealand have played 52 Test matches and lost just six.

Yes that’s right - SIX. That’s a win ratio of almost 87 per cent. What’s more, under him, New Zealand have won 25 of the 31 games they have played against the world’s top four nations.

Yet this is a man widely excoriated for the World Cup failure in 2007. But forget the World Cup for a minute - wouldn’t any country or any sporting team be proud of a win ratio of almost 90 per cent?

I mean, what more do these people want? Blood?

In truth, there is an expectation within these islands that borders on the lunatic. Unless the All Blacks win every single game they play, normal life in this pleasant country is threatened with disruption.

The notion of actually losing a Test match, never mind a World Cup, seems to haunt normally sane people.

And now plans gather for the staging of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in this country. Can you imagine the insane pressures on the All Blacks coach at that tournament?

Almost a quarter of a century without a World Cup triumph - no wonder Graham Henry goes for walks in the rain.