Sir Graham Henry: “England Choked”

Sir Graham Henry has labelled England as “chokers” following their loss to Wales.

“They froze, or choked, call it what you will,” he has told The Guardian.

As England boss Stuart Lancaster faced a barrage of criticism, Henry joined the throng saying England had “set out not to lose, rather than to win.”

“A team that had ripped defences apart in the Six Nations failed to attack. What I could not understand from the start was why England did not play,” he said.

Henry said England were on top at scrum time and had an excellent lineout, which should have had them well on the way to victory without such a close finish.

“The only positive for England to take from such a wretched outcome is that they can only learn from it,” he said.

“I have been there and when you go through hard times, you have to emerge the stronger for it.

“The first part of this strategy is players having a basic knowledge of how the brain works under pressure. Under intense pressure the brain has a tendency to freeze.

“Embrace it…if you do not, timidity takes the place of boldness. They can still get through and that is all they should be thinking about. If they get through they will face South Africa…a team that showed at the weekend how to bounce back from a major setback in a week.”