Foster upbeat despite ‘yuck’ result
London: You’d be wrong if you expected Ian Foster to roast his troops for their inexplicable collapse against England at Twickenham.
Perhaps he’ll do so behind closed doors. But, speaking immediately after the All Blacks leaked three tries in the final nine minutes of their 25-25 draw, head coach Foster remained somewhat upbeat.
“They beat us up three years ago and that didn’t happen today. We’ve got to learn from that last 10 [minutes], but we’ll take massive confidence from that first part,” he told Sky Sport.
The first part was the All Blacks scoring two tries inside nine minutes, before blowing out to a 25-6 lead with 10 minutes to play against an English side which had misfired all night.
However, as captain Sam Whitelock put it, the All Blacks shut up shop and forgot how to play, leaving them ruing a “yuck” result.
They conceded 19 unanswered points in the final nine minutes, with replacement prop Will Stuart scoring the second of his brace in the final minute.
“Seventy minutes in control, and then 10 minutes, a combination of a yellow card (to Beauden Barrett), that fired them up, and they got a lot of quick ball against us. And we got passively defensively for some reason,” Foster said.
“Look, frustrating...at the end of the day it’s a draw we probably let slip. But there was still a lot of good rugby I was proud of.”
The All Blacks had dominated the match, and would have led 21-0 inside 17 minutes had Rieko Ioane not had a try rubbed out by a neck roll he dished out a few moments before he touched down.
Their pack enjoyed moments of scrum and maul dominance, and
they rebuffed a series of promising raids the first 70 minutes.
But they folded when it mattered most – when the heat went on – as they’ve made a habit of doing this season.
“Yeah,” Whitelock said asked if the draw felt like a defeat, before he was asked to sum up the season, one in which the All Blacks finished with eight wins, four losses and a draw, one which very nearly saw Foster sacked in August.
“This game probably summed it up, had a bit of a yuck feeling to it. It was there for the taking, we just didn’t take it, so that’s something we’re going to have to get better at.”
Pivot Richie Mo’unga was somewhat speechless after the full-time whistle, admitting he was surprised England opted to kick the ball out and not chase a comeback win in the final seconds.
Foster was also surprised, before wrapping up his post-match interview by stating the All Blacks know what it will take to get the job done with the World Cup looming.
”I’ve got no doubt about that,” he said. “It’s a team that’s grown strong. We nailed two (games on the northern tour), drew the third. It’s not a loss, but it feels like that a little bit at the moment.”
England captain Owen Farrell, who handed the kicking duties to Marcus Smith during the game after he got dinged up, lauded his team’s fight.
When asked where the attacking mojo they showed at the death was earlier, he pointed to their high error count.
“But it didn’t feel like we were far off. One or two per cent, but one or two per cent against New Zealand is a big drop off.”