France will prefer to face the All Blacks, says Sir Graham Henry;

Sir Graham Henry has warned the All Blacks that Australia is playing the best rugby he has seen from a Wallabies team in 15 years - and also that France will be quite happy to face New Zealand rather than Argentina in the World Cup quarter finals.

Henry made the sobering statements to Newstalk ZB sports host Tony Veitch today after watching a courageous Australia hold off Wales 15-6 at Twickenham this morning to top the so-called "Group of Death" at the tournament.

With their previously weak scrum now being lauded as a set piece weapon and despite being down to only 13 men at one stage, Australia fired a warning shot that Henry said the All Blacks will have stood up and taken note of.

"I think they are probably playing their best rugby for 15 years since they won the World Cup in '99 when John Eales was the captain and had the Bledisloe Cup that time too," Henry said. "They are starting to look quite threatening really.

"I think we saw this morning with their defence, that's the sign of a side with character and togetherness and that hasn't been there for some time. They are the side that has probably come the furtherest and improved the most during this Rugby World Cup and this year. They've got it together, they've got a good culture."

Henry said the win helped Australia onto "the good side of the draw where they won't get smashed about".

"They will get Scotland in the quarter which is the soft game of the quarters with all due respect to Scotland, so they're guaranteed a semi final place, most likely against Ireland.
"So they are not going to get smashed around next week and are looking good for the semi-finals - and who knows beyond that."

The 2011 World Cup-winning All Blacks coach also threw a curve ball by favouring Ireland to defeat France this morning - a result that would pitch the Frenchmen against New Zealand in a Cardiff quarter final and leave the Irish facing Argentina in another quarter final.

Henry pointed out Argentina had beaten France in the bronze medal play-off in the 2007 World Cup, again in a group match in 2011 and once more last year in France. He felt the Tricolours found the Pumas such difficult opposition they would probably prefer to face the All Blacks instead next week.

"There's a French psyche that doesn't like playing Argentina so I just wonder if they might be a bit indifferent going into tomorrow morning's game about the result (against Ireland)," he said. "(Whereas) I don't think they mind playing the All Blacks. You look back to 1999. I think something happened in 2007 as well. So the French have got a bit of history in World Cups played in the northern hemisphere and I think they will feel more comfortable playing the All Blacks than they would playing Argentina."

Henry felt Argentina were the other rugby nation that had come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and had been impressed with their Cup performances, pointing out they stretched the All Blacks and had put big scores up against other group rivals.

Henry also believed Wales were a good chance of beating South Africa in the quarter finals despite their ongoing injury problems and the loss to Australia.

He felt Warren Gatland's men has shown real "resilience" and that the tough group matches to date would help the Welsh compared to the Springboks who had come through a "soft pool".

"South Africa are improving," he said. "They are starting to look a wee bit better. I still think they're too old in the tight five. I think they might get found out defensively there. 
"I don't see them as real contenders. I think they have probably got too many players who have been there a long time and are probably going down the other side of the hill....I think the Welsh will give them a huge game."

He encouraged All Blacks supporters to take heart despite some anxiety over the pool matches including Saturday morning's last group encounter against Tonga.

He expected the All Blacks to play a more territory-based game plan now they were into the knockout stages of the tournaments.

"They will be on the job. They will be on the edge of the edge and that's exactly where they need to be. I think Steve (Hansen) and company will be pretty happy with where they are at. They haven't hit their straps. They've struggled to get their game together in total so they won't have got ahead of themselves.

"I can remember in 2007, we beat the Italians by 90 in the first game, we beat Portugal by 100, somebody else by about 100 and we played Scotland B. So we had no football going into that French game in 2007. The teams we had played against were not good opposition. We gave them all hidings, we looked good and probably got ahead of ourselves.

"There's no way this side will get ahead of themselves, so that's an ideal situation."

 Sir G is never short of an opinion. Interesting that he thinks the Boks pack has too many old guys who are past their prime.
I agree OZ is looking like the form team at the moment. They have been forced to play top rugby because of the pool they are in. We will see of teams figure out how to deal with their scrum, I am sure it is getting a lot of analysis. The break-down is another area which will give Oz an advantage.
Sure France will want to play the ABs they feel like they have an emotional advantage. They also have a good team. France can surprise, Ireland less so. We can't control who we will play so bring it on!

 Agreed with what he says about SA (as anyone who knows a little bit about rugby would be):

"I still think they're too old in the tight five...
"I don't see them as real contenders. I think they have probably got too many players who have been there a long time and are probably going down the other side of the hill....I think the Welsh will give them a huge game."

but not about Australia. Yesterday they were nullified in attack by a Welsh team with so many injuries that make them be a quite average team.
In the second half they were completely dominated, except in scrums. Their praised defensive effort was eased in a big way by the welsh refusal to open wide the ball, especially when they were 2 men up.
It was amazing how once and again the Welsh opted to go with their forwrds through the traffic instead of opening the ball trying to find the gaps their superioriority should create.
The scrums when the Welsh were 2 men up were very significatives in this sense. The aussies were playing without a loosie and the scrumie and the Welsh nº8, Faletau, instead of taking the ball and run to link with the backline, where their clear superiority could have been traduced in gaps, he went everytime, and there were numerous scrums, to try to reach the try-line with the scrum, precisely the only aspect of the game the aussies remained superior. The result: they got no tries but some penalties against. And the match lost.
If they had been the AB instead of the aussies everybody in this moment would be saying that they had an horrendous game, dominated by the welsh, that they are no more title contenders,..... instead they are talking about the great defensive effort

 Good points ABasquefan. There are always two sides to the story: was it great defence or poor offence? 
Oz did showed good team spirit & determination in their defence but Wales showed lack of brains on offence. Each coach has to put a spin on it to protect the confidence of their team. I am sure all coaches will be evaluating Oz performance & looking for weaknesses.

 I think everyone is overstating the Wallabies atm. They look better then they have done in years. But they have weaknesses, that Abs could exploit. England even stifled then in that game, if Abs were playing might have been different story.

 They very well could Cloudy. It looks though they have picked a strong team so at this point it looks like they want to win it. If they just want their top players to get a training run they will make they will use the bench early. We just have to wait & see, we can never predict what they will do as half the time they don't know.