All Blacks look past Henry in hunt for coach

Judging by the circumstances surrounding Scott Gibbs' abrupt retirement from international rugby, there are a number of prominent figures in Wales who would very much like to see Graham Henry lured back to his native New Zealand with a promise of the All Blacks' coaching job. The indications are that they will be disappointed. Several hats are in the ring down Wellington way, including the ones belonging to Wayne Smith, who resigned as national coach only a few days ago, and John Mitchell, who once assisted Clive Woodward at Twickenham. Henry's is not among them, however.

When Smith walked out on the job last week, having failed to persuade the New Zealand Rugby Football Union council that his contract should be renewed, all eyes turned in Henry's direction, especially when the NZRFU appealed for the country's prime back-room talent to stand up and be counted. Even though Henry, who coached the great Auckland side of the mid-1990s, is contracted to the Welsh Rugby Union until the end of the 2003 World Cup, it was widely assumed he could negotiate his way out of it if need be.

But New Zealand circles, unimpressed by the failure of Henry's Lions in Australia, are buzzing with other names: the Samoa coach John Boe, Robbie Deans of Canterbury and Wayne Shelford of North Harbour, as well as Mitchell and Smith. Mitchell has made serious progress since returning to his beloved Waikato and helping the Chiefs punch their weight at Super 12 level.

Smith, meanwhile, has re-convinced himself that he has what it takes to survive in the hottest seat in world rugby. "I'm going for it," the former Test outside-half said yesterday. "I've spoken to my family and I've steeled myself to do this."

Back in the northern hemisphere, the French coach Bernard Laporte has recalled a clutch of familiar names – the Toulouse tight forwards Fabien Pelous and Franck Tournaire, the Stade Français wing Thomas Lombard and the Béziers centre Richard Dourthe – to a 40-man squad in preparation for the autumn internationals against South Africa, Australia and Fiji.

An equal number of front-liners are missing, though; some through injury, others through poor form. Christophe Lamaison, Sylvain Marconnet, Emile Ntamack and Fabrice Landreau are among those on the outside looking in, while the firebrand front-rower Christian Califano effectively disqualified himself by spending the European close season playing for Auckland.

Twickenham officials have confirmed that Ellery Hanley, the former Great Britain rugby league captain, has left his part-time post on the England coaching staff following the collapse of contractual negotiations. Hanley accompanied Woodward on the red rose tour of North America during the summer, having understudied Phil Larder as specialist defensive coach to the national side, and had been expected to perform a leading role with this season's England A team.

He will, however, continue working with Bath, who are currently in free fall having lost four consecutive Premiership matches. Last night, Hanley defended the club's head coach, Jon Callard, in the face of terrace discontent. "The onus is on the players to become accountable for results," he said. "They have everything laid out for them; the only thing Jon is not doing is actually putting on his boots and going out on the pitch. We have all experienced knock-backs at some time in our lives. It is up to the players to show the strength and determination to overcome failure."

Rather like Bath, the hardened European campaigners of Cardiff have been crippled by an injury list as long as a Neil Jenkins touch-finder. Happily, the Wales captain, David Young, will return to their front row for tonight's opening Heineken Cup match with Northampton at the Arms Park. They may be able to call on the no-nonsense services of Pieter Muller, too, for the Springbok centre is hoping to recover from calf trouble in time for the match. If he withdraws, Matt Allen will face his old club for the first time since leaving Franklin's Gardens at the end of last season.

In tonight's other ties, Glasgow take on Montferrand with six of the Scotland side that started last weekend's demolition of Ireland at Murrayfield, while Leinster have Brian O'Driscoll fit for the visit of Toulouse.

Will Greenwood, the England and Lions centre, has been named in a 23-man Harlequins squad for tomorrow's Heineken Cup tie against Bridgend. Greenwood suffered an ankle injury during the Lions tour of Australia this summer, a setback which destroyed his Test team hopes. He sat out all of Quins' opening four Premiership matches, but is now poised to return. Quins also include Greenwood's Lions colleagues Dan Luger, Jason Leonard and Keith Wood for the fixture.

Newcastle, meanwhile, have made six changes for their tie against. Rob Andrew has recalled the international trio Inga Tuigamala, Gary Armstrong and Pat Lam after they featured on the replacements' bench during last Sunday's Premiership victory at London Irish. Tuigamala replaces Michael Stephenson on the left-wing, scrum-half Armstrong takes over from Hall Charlton and Lam is back at No 8 instead of Jon Dunbar.