Why I suspected match fixing in THAT French game - Graham Henry

Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry has opened up - a little - on his 2007 World Cup quarter final match fixing claims.

Sir Graham says his suspicions of match fixing in the game against France which saw New Zealand out of the tournament were not picked by other people because he analysed the game more closely.

He makes the controversial claims in his recently-released biography, Final Word.

He told NBR ONLINE the number of penalties against France missed by referee Wayne Barnes was "astounding."

"My reaction was, 'there's something untoward going on here, there's match fixing or sports betting, perhaps'."

However, he kept that close to his chest because the view wasn't shared by others.

"I talked to the NZRU and I talked to some IRB people, and their decision was they didn't want to go down there."

Sir Graham says he saw what others didn't because he had a different frame of reference.

"I was the coach of the All Blacks and I was going to look at it pretty bloody seriously, and dissect it totally.

"Everybody else's reaction is quite different, because they don't do that.

"They know there was some refereeing errors in the game, and they were well documented at the time, but they don't analyse the game like I analyse the game because that's my job."

Some members of the sports media, such as veteran Newstalk ZB host Murray Deaker, suggested Sir Graham only put these claims in his recently published autobiography to sell more copies.

Sir Graham rejects this.

"It's bloody rubbish. I put those things in the book because they were real.

"That's how I felt. It's a true, black and white account."

He says this is the first time the claims have been made public.

So why didn't he raise it earlier?

"The reason I didn't bring it out more vocally at the time was that I hadn't analysed the game properly.

"I thought we had the rough end of the stick pretty badly, but I didn't think there was any point in raising it."

He just said, "well, we didn't play as well as expected and we didn't get the bounce of the ball.

"I kept repeating that statement until I was awarded the World Fair Play Award, for the way the All Blacks handled the quarter final."