Although he would eventually be knighted in recognition of one of the most remarkable coaching careers in the history of rugby, Graham Henry experienced his share of crushing setbacks and disappointments. This was the man responsible for restoring the glory days of the All Blacks and reinvigorating the spirits of an entire nation, but also the one held accountable for a disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign. When the team crashed out, humiliatingly at the quarter-final stage, Sir Graham thought his time as an international rugby coach was up.

The New Zealand Rugby Union had never reappointed a losing World Cup coach, and he couldn’t see why they would make an exception for him. That is, until he began preparing his coach’s report, which involved a detailed analysis of the video of that fateful quarter-final. What he witnessed initially caused him to vomit, then to reassess his future. His findings and insights ultimately led to his reappointment.

In this book, Henry reveals that as a rugby coach he was always more tactical than technical. In partnership with Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, he would go on to rebuild the All Blacks as the most triumphant and entertaining team in the world. Sir Graham is rugby’s most successful coach having maintained an almost unbelievable 83 per cent success rate across four decades and more than 500 matches from schoolboy to international level.

Now retired, he has teamed up with New Zealand’s most prolific rugby author, Bob Howitt, to relate his personal account of the drastic measures he took to change the culture within the All Blacks and set them on the path to becoming world champions.