All Black fell for niggle tactics — Foster
MELBOURNE: All Black coach Ian Foster has urged his team to play ‘‘smarter’’, claiming they were ‘‘provoked’’ into losing their discipline by a niggly Wallabies side during the tight loss in Brisbane.
Foster tasted a bitter first defeat as head coach after his reshuffled side fell 2422 in Saturday night’s fiery cliffhanger at Suncorp Stadium, which featured two red cards and two yellow.
The All Blacks were punished severely for indiscipline in the second half,
Wallaby first fiveeighth
Reece Hodge slotting three penalties and prop Taniela
Tupou scoring the decisive try while Scott
Barrett was sinbinned for drawing yellow in the 68th minute.
‘‘In the second half we weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be,’’ Foster said.
‘‘We were being pushed in the areas and provoked in the areas, and again that’s a tactic that teams use against us, and good on them.
‘‘We’ve got to be better than that and smarter than that.’’
The red cards that hit both teams for headhigh tackles drew heated debate, All Black great John Kirwan saying the whole redcard system should be scrapped because it punishes teams too severely and can end up killing off a contest.
‘‘I get that argument to one extent,’’ Foster said.
‘‘But the flipside of it is it’s a very physical game, and if we don’t have clear boundaries, it becomes really hard for everyone to play the skilful game they need to.’’
The All Blacks have notched two wins, a loss and a draw against the Wallabies in Foster’s first four matches in charge, and wrapped up the fourtest Bledisloe Cup with a match to spare after humiliating Australia 435 in Sydney a week ago. — Reuters