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Raewyn Henry leads Welsh hopes

From the South Wales Argus, first published Thursday 14th Feb 2002.

A HENRY will be in charge of Wales this weekend.

But before rugby fans do a double take, it's Raewyn Henry (pictured) - wife of Graham.

Despite her husband's public departure from the Wales national rugby team, she leads out the country's netball team as defending European champions this weekend.

And how Graham would have surely loved this scenario.

Her team steps out at Sophia Gardens - a stone's throw from the Millennium Stadium where Wales take on France - with a victory over England last year firmly under their collective belts.

Not much to compare there you could say but, otherwise, the similarities of a Kiwi coaching on both the rugby side and the netball side is startling.

No one will forget the outstanding achievements of Wales under Henry in 1999 when they beat England, France and South Africa, but Welsh netball's 58-57 win over England in Canterbury last February was right up there for achievement value.

Not only was it Wales' first win over England in recent history, it meant they were crowned European champions and guaranteed the Welsh a place in this summer's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Wales enter this weekend's FENA (Federation of European Netball Associations) European Open Championships as defending champions, with Sunday's final game against England set to be the key battle.

Northern Ireland and Scotland join Wales and England, who don't enter their full-strength side in the Championships but send along a development squad instead - although any win for Wales over an English side is an achievement.

With the World Championships taking place in Jamaica next year, Wales are hoping to get in amongst the likes of New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, England and South Africa to challenge the world's best and Henry is targeting a top-six place in this summer's Commonwealth Games, a far cry from their ninth placed finish in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur. The influence in the Welsh squad is undoubtedly Kiwi.

Alongside Henry is National Performance Director Alison Wieringa, who has coached top professional sides in her native New Zealand and took over in the Welsh set-up from Leigh Gibbs, a former captain and coach of the Sliver Ferns, New Zealand's netball team.

The Kiwi influence and the Welsh Sports Council decision in July 2000 to invest £180,000 into netball over three years , plus the raised media profile generated by the arrival of Mrs Graham Henry, has meant big changes in the sport.

An academy side has been established and two members of the Welsh squad who have witnessed the up-swing in Welsh Netball's fortunes are Cwmbran Netball Club's Emma Blanks and Helen Weston.

Both senior members of the squad, Blanks plays Goal Defence, while goalkeeper Weston has 108 caps to her name and is the second-most capped player in the world.

Since her first appearance in 1982, Weston said one of the biggest games she has played for Wales was their single-point win over England.

Blanks, who was alongside her in defence, agreed that the sport received a massive boost by beating England.

She said: "It was amazing beating England, we had a lot of support from the fans from Scotland and Northern Ireland who got behind us."

So how did they manage it?

Both Weston and Blanks stressed that the previous regime had done the best they could with the team, but the extra £180,000 meant the team gained the help of backroom staff with a physiologist, physiotherapist, a sports psychologist and a conditioning coach, Swansea and Wales rugby international Matt Robinson.

As Weston pointed out, when she started out Wales didn't even have a physiotherapist when they travelled to tournaments.

She puts the revival down to a more professional approach.

She said: "We have always had good coaches before, but the influence of a New Zealand-style of play has really improved our game.

"They have taken us back to the nuts and bolts and moved from an aerial game to a quicker handling game."

While netball may struggle to generate column inches in Britain's national newspapers, it is one of the top sports in New Zealand, where Weston is well-known as one of the world's top players.

Indeed, Ursula Bowers has just returned to Wales from playing professional netball in New Zealand with the Canterbury Flames and to her surprise soon found herself on bill-boards.

Bowers has returned home too late to go straight into the senior Wales squad for this weekend, but will play for the Welsh Development squad who take on Malta and Pakistan in a side-show to the European Championships.

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