Foster has spoken to ‘top bloke’ Meninga
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has revealed he’s spoken to Australian rugby league counterpart Mal Meninga about a proposed hybrid game.
It comes after New Zealand Rugby (NZR) boss Mark Robinson confirmed on Thursday that negotiations have been underway for a hybrid 14-a-side match against the Kangaroos.
Foster stressed the idea was just a ‘‘proposal on the table’’ with the All Blacks’ top priority being games against Australia, and possibly South Africa and Argentina, later in the year.
Foster also confirmed the eligibility criteria for the August 29 North Island v South Island contest. Selection will depend on which province a player made their first-class debut for.
The All Blacks v Kangaroos duel is an intriguing one and Foster said it was worth exploring amid the Covid-19 uncertainty for 2020.
‘‘I’ve had a couple of talks to Mal Meninga. It was great talking to him, top bloke, about what the game would like if it did happen. There’s a lot of work to be done in that space. It’s a proposal on the table at the moment,’’ Foster said in a video on allblacks.com
‘‘In this year of so much disruption and changes we’re not dismissing anything. Our first priority is clearly to play All Blacks tests. We’re not going to say no to anything right now.’’
Foster acknowledged the idea had the potential to capture interest on both sides of the Tasman and would be a novel approach.
As for the August 29 North v South clash, there had already been backlash on social media about the eligibility criteria for the game. Some felt it should have been high school attended or where a player grew up.
The eligibility rules means a player like Northland’s Jack Goodhue and Scott and Jordie Barrett (Taranaki) will instead play for the South Island, having made their provincial debuts for Canterbury.
On the flipside, Christchurchraised Anton Lienert-Brown and Southlander Damian McKenzie will play for the North Island because they both first played for Waikato.
‘‘We’ve looked at it and we think the best legacy thing for us to do is pick players on the first province that they played for because that was probably the start of their move into the professional game. We think that’s the best criteria,’’ Foster said.
‘‘We’re firming up a date and we’ve got to sort the ground out. We’ve got to find some hotels that aren’t being used for [Covid-19] quarantining, that’s not easy.’’