High, lows and lessons for ABS
Post-season reviews shouldn’t be a fun experience for an All Blacks’ head coach. Not if he fronts with amodest 50 per cent success rate. Ian Foster knows about this.
Reviews provide NZ Rugby board members and CEO with an opportunity to squeeze coaches with probing questions, and to keep hammering away if they don’t get the feedback they feel they deserve. If that makes a coach squirm, so be it.
All Blacks coach Foster, having assisted his predecessor Steve Hansen for eight years, should know what to expect when he provides the board and CEO Mark Robinson with a detailed breakdown of the 2020 season.
For this has not been a vintage year for Foster, albeit under very trying circumstances because of Covid-19. Three wins from six tests for the All Blacks isn’t good enough.
The warning shots ahead of the 2021 season have been sent.
Foster is contracted until late 2021. His plan is to get an extension through to the 2023 World Cup in France. It’s a work in progress.
1What were the highlights of Foster’s first year as coach?
Thrashing thewallabies by a record score of 43-5 in Sydney was the most memorable effort.
The big win over Argentina in Newcastle last weekend was sweet revenge for the 25-15 defeat; the All Blacks’ forwards won back some respect, and it’s highly likely the victory has secured the Tri-nations crown. A good way to end the year.
2 And the lows?
The draw with the Aussies in Wellington was amiserable way to begin a new tenure. The loss to them in Brisbane was worse.
But neither can compare to the shocker in Sydney against the Pumas, a first-ever loss to a team that hadn’t played since last year’s World Cup in Japan. Not acceptable. 3 Is Sam Cane the rightman to lead the All Blacks?
Yes. Captain Cane ran himself into the dust in every game.
Cane, it’s understood, had called for a drop goal to be taken in the final crazy seconds of the draw to thewallabies inwellington. It never came.
Not changing the game plan in the infamous loss to the Pumas was also costly. There’s room for improvement. The captain might have plenty of lieutenants, but it’s his ship.
4Was there value in taking such a large squad to Australia?
There had better have been. A number of players got minimal minutes, or in the case of Du’plessis Kirifi none at all, but it gave Foster the chance to assess his cattle ahead of next year.
Lock Tupou Vaa’i and prop Alex Hodgman made encouraging starts to their test careers, providing depth ahead of the next World Cup.
It was a shame not to see more of back rower Cullen Grace.
5Who will be the best recruit for 2021?
Start with lock Brodie Retallick, after he’s finished playing for the Kobelco Steelers club in Japan.
The great Retallick, for so many reasons, was missed this year. The plus side of his absence was it forced Foster to blood Vaa’i when it became apparent Scott Barrett wouldn’t be fit for the earlier tests.
6 Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenarawill also play for Japanese clubs next year. What impactwill that have on the All Blacks?
Skipping Super Rugby Aotearoa won’t be a bad thing. While that rugged tournament is grinding up and spitting out its participants, Barrett and Perenara will be (hopefully) staying intact.
7 Has Foster got his back rowcombination right?
He did for the final test. Akira Ioane could be a very good No 6. Consistency is key. Giving Hoskins Sotutu more opportunities at No 8 in 2021 may add more power and size to the mix.
8 Is the dual playmaker system working?
It’s OK but not convincing. Richie Mo’unga could flourish if given sole responsibility to do everything at No 10, leaving Beauden Barrett to remain stationed out the back where he adds extra value returning the ball from broken play.
Mo’unga does a good job of being the sole playmaker at the Crusaders, after all.
9 Rieko Ioane: centre or wing?
There’s potential to be amajor weapon at No 13, but he’s not ready yet. Ioane’s power, size and speed off the bench, either at wing or centre, suits best right now.
10 Next year, pandemic permitting, the All Blacks should playworld champions Springboks and several northern hemisphere teams. Howwill they fare?
It depends which All Blacks’ team turns up. A top XV, with the right attitude, would give anyone a run for their money. But we also witnessed some frailties.
It caused consternation. And, quite rightly, so. The All Blacks were fortunate the Springboks were unavailable in 2020.
It was a scene positively biblical in its power. Just 20 seconds after he had speared into a Bahraini crash barrier at 53 times the force of gravity, his car slicing in half and flames engulfing his cockpit, Romain Grosjean emerged from the inferno, hurdled the wall of shattered steel, and walked away.
Formula One is not a realm given to invoking the divine, but the Frenchman’s escape from seemingly certain death was as close to amiraculous vision as any sport has seen.
One half of Grosjean’s machine lay embedded in molten metal, the other half had come to rest a few yards away, a gruesome cleaving that borewitness to the horror of the impact.
If ever there was a sight to shatter the misconception that modern F1 drivers know nothing of the terrors that assailed their forefathers, this was it. Grosjean’s ordeal rendered any suggestion of this sport being too safe, too anodyne, null and void.
But for the halo that encircled his head as he hurtled towards doom at 220kmh, he would, in all likelihood, have been killed on impact. But for his advanced flameretardant overalls, he would have been consumed by the conflagration.
As it was, Grosjean sustained only minor burns to his wrists and ankles, staying overnight at a nearby military hospital as doctors examined him for suspected broken ribs.
His team, Haas, posted a video of him in his bed, albeit with his hands encased in protective plastic. ‘‘I am OK – well, sort of OK,’’ he joked.
‘‘Thank you for all the messages.’’
The outcome was one that nobody observing either the crash or the ensuing fireball had any right to expect. The very fact that the 34-year-old would live to spend another day with his wife, Marion, and his three children, Sacha, Simon and Camille, stood as testament to the sport’s insistence never to compromise on safety.
When the FIA, F1’s world governing body, resolved in 2017 to introduce the halo, a wishboneshaped device to protect drivers from head injuries, it drew criticism for the aesthetics of the design.
Too ugly, it was claimed, and too obstructive to vision was the verdict from some. Today, not for the first time, it can be confidently credited with saving somebody’s life.
‘‘I wasn’t for the halo some years ago, but I think it’s the greatest thing we have built in Formula One,’’ Grosjean said. ‘‘Without it I wouldn’t be able to speak to you today.’’
But he owes his fortune, too, to the astonishingly quick thinking of twomen in the silver medical vehicle behind. No sooner did the opening-lap carnage unfold, with Grosjean clipping Alphatauri’s Daniil Kvyat before veering off a reduced run-off area and into the wall, than the rescue team arrived.
While Dr Ian Roberts, the medical rescue coordinator, dashed straight into the flames to retrieve Grosjean from the wreckage, medical car driver Alan van der Merwe had a fire extinguisher on hand to help save them both.
It was an utterly extraordinary sight, crystallising the sharpness of the thinking that kept Grosjean from a far grislier fate.
As has become customary, F1