Mooar and Plumtree leave All Blacks roles

BRAD Mooar and John Plumtree have left the All Blacks coaching team as head coach Ian Foster has reshuffled his backroom staff in the wake of their first series defeat to Ireland.

Ex-Scarlets boss Mooar has left his backs coach role, while former Swansea coach Plumtree’s spell as forwards coach has ended following Ireland’s historic 2-1 series win in the southern hemisphere earlier this month.

Crusaders and Fiji forwards coach Jason Ryan will join up with the squad in Wellington next week ahead of their Lipovitan-D Rugby Championship campaign, which will see them come up against South Africa, Argentina and Australia. Foster, who will take charge of the backs in the short term, said: “Right now, I am really feeling for two fine men who are great rugby coaches that made an enormous contribution to the All Blacks. I have no doubt both coaches will go on to great success and I want to thank them for their hard work.”

Meanwhile, rugby pundit Stuart Barnes says All Blacks captain Sam Cane isn’t good enough to get into Italy’s team.

The former England fly-half, who believes Ardie Savea is among the best open-sides on the planet but is played at No. 8 to accommodate Cane, wrote in his column for The Times: “Foster has ‘got a lot of faith in Sam’. Judged by the recent tour, it is faith of a religious disposition. There’s little in the way of evidence.

“The Springboks wouldn’t think of swapping their captain for anyone, let alone New Zealand’s skipper... Tommy Reffell arrived on the Test stage in South Africa with some superb performances for Wales. Would Wales swap their seven for Cane?

“Gregor Townsend made Hamish Watson Scotland’s captain in the absence of Stuart Hogg and the open-side was one of the outstanding players in the series. Thanks, Sam, but you’re not for Scotland either.

“England suffered from openside injuries but Tom Curry and Sam Underhill are ahead of Cane, while Lewis Ludlam is progressing so quickly New Zealand’s skipper would struggle to make the England squad.”

After ruling out Cane’s form to fit France, too, Barnes added: “While we are on mainland Europe, let’s be brutally honest. His fellow New Zealander, Kieran Crowley, now in charge of Italy, wouldn’t swap his inspiring Michale Lamero for the brave, battered but decidedly secondhand looking Cane.

“Good enough for New Zealand, not for Italy.”