Wales have boosted Kiwi coaching credentials

EDDIE Jones has put the blame on Wales for unwittingly helping New Zealand to lift back-to-back World Cup.

The All Blacks hold on rugby was finally broken when Jones’ England beat them in the semi-finals of last year’s tournament in Japan.

New Zealand had become the first country to win successive global showpieces.

They triumphed over France in the final on home soil in the 2011 tournament under the guidance of Graham Henry.

And they retained the title four years later with Steve Hansen, the man who succeeded Henry as Wales coach, stepping up to take command during a rousing final with Australia at Twickenham.

England boss Jones is adamant

Henry’s stint with Wales from the summer of 1998 to February 2002, and Hansen’s to the end of the 2004 Six Nations was a key factor in the domination of the All Blacks.

The Kiwis humiliated Sir Clive Woodward’s 2005 Lions and won 11 Tri-Nations and Rugby Championship titles with their only major flop coming during the 2007 World Cup when a written-off France engineered a stunning upset to knock them out in Cardiff at the quarterfinal stage.

Outspoken Australian Jones, who launched a post-match rant after England beat Wales 33-30 during this year’s Six Nations, insisted Henry and Hansen’s time with the Welsh Rugby Union had enabled them to gain the knowledge to take New Zealand to another level.

“There is definitely a different philosophy in rugby in the southern and northern hemispheres because to the conditions they are played under,” said Jones on his England

Rugby podcast. “The southern hemisphere is much more about ball usage, you want to have the ball for longer periods of time. The northern hemisphere is more about ball-winning and territory.

“The coaches who have done best are those who have been brought up to the northern hemisphere then gone back to the southern having learnt a lot. Look at Graham Henry and Steve Hansen, two of the best coaches we have seen.

“They cut their mustard at Wales and learnt about the northern hemisphere game.”