In the run-up to the 2011 World Cup, the All Blacks held a series of “What if?” meetings. “We talked about worst-case scenarios,” Jerome Kaino remembered, “and Kieran Read said: ‘The worst would be if Dan Carter and Richie McCaw get injured.’” The head coach, Graham Henry, didn’t really think that would happen – “surely not possible” he told himself – but he wanted to plan for it anyway. After New Zealand were knocked out by France in 2007, Henry had spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong. He decided his team had been caught short when everything took a turn for the worse. So he became a doomsday prepper.
In their 2007 quarter-final in Cardiff, the All Blacks were thrown by the referee, yes, who hardly gave a decision their way, but by some critical injuries, too. Carter went off after 56 minutes, his replacement, Nick Evans, after 71. Henry felt that, without either of their two first‑choice fly-halves, his team had become like “a possum in the headlights”. So for 2011, Henry’s philosophy was to expect the unexpected. He wanted his coaches and players to feel ready for anything. “Say McCaw breaks his leg in the first minute of the final, what happens then?” Henry said. “How do you handle that?”
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/26/england-rugby-world-cup-plan-eddie-jones under the title “Eddie Jones must do his doomsday prep if England are to win World Cup | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
