NZ Media Calls For Foster’s Sacking
All Blacks loss was ‘shambolic, unimaginative, uninspiring’
New Zealand’s media contingent have taken the All Blacks’ historic 25-15 loss at the hands of Argentina as well as one might expect.
Australians were shown a glimpse of the reaction in the immediate aftermath of the remarkable result when Sky Sports’ post match coverage took charge of Fox Sports’ feed.
Argentina has been playing New Zealand since 1985 without ever recording a victory, in Sydney on Saturday afternoon Los Pumas wrote themselves into the record books as they stunned the All Blacks 25 - 15 to spark scenes of euphoria.
Sir John’s say
The analysis of the performance - particularly from legendary All Black Sir John Kirwan - was fierce. “Did that really just happen? I’ve just heard someone say ‘they played with more passion, they’re playing for their country and they’ve got more want’,” Kirwan said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that about us before. They had that, but that’s normally the stuff that we say (about the All Blacks).” Kirwan’s words will hurt his standing in the game. given
Rattue calls for axe
But he didn’t go as far as NZ Herald scribe Chris Rattue, who started his Sunday morning analysis piece by calling for coach Ian Foster to be sacked - just five games into his tenure.
“The first and most obvious thing to say about Argentina’s brilliant win over the All Blacks, from a New Zealand point of view, is that Ian Foster must go,” Rattue wrote. “And he must. New Zealand Rugby needs to admit to its mistake, and change their All Black coach at the end of this season.”
While conceding the All Blacks no longer have the same calibre of players that guided them to consecutive Rugby World Cups, Rattue made the point that Foster never even thrived at Super Rugby level. “It’s time for an emergency procedure,” he wrote.
“The way the All Blacks are playing shows that the many critics of Foster’s appointment were on the money. He’s not the whole problem, not by a long way. But he is a problem, and a big one.
“His haywire selections for the previous test in Brisbane reflected an arrogance which beset the All Blacks in Hansen’s final years. “Foster was part of a truly great All Black regime, under the man I would rate the finest All Black coach ever. But Foster was a lieutenant who ended up as part of a failing operation. The NZR didn’t seem to notice, blinded by previous success.
“The miracle wasn’t that New Zealand rugby produced McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu, Brodie Retallick, Jerome Kaino, three great Smiths, Kieran Read, Sam Whitelock, Beauden Barrett, Keven Mealamu and on and on and on. The miracle was that those players appeared at virtually the same time.
“But if there is another golden generation out there, Ian Foster is not the man most likely to create it.”
Paul’s analysis
The analysis of fellow New Zealand Herald scribe Gregor Paul was similarly scathing.
“Argentina have made history and the All Blacks have the sort of problems that suggest they are horribly vulnerable and highly beatable. It wasn’t that they lost to the Pumas, it was that they never really got anywhere near them,” Paul wrote.
“The All Blacks had nothing. Really nothing and rarely in the last 10 years, maybe even in the last 20, have they played with such a sense of being rattled and so badly outclassed.”
Paul continued, accusing the current crop of All Blacks of bringing shame on the nation’s proud legacy in recording their first ever defeat to the Pumas.
“Argentina nailed every little and big part of their game. They were supremely brave in every facet and
maybe a defensive effort like the one they gave won’t ever be reproduced,” he wrote.
“They won’t care about that. All they know is that they have finally beaten the mighty All Blacks. “They hammered them in fact and reduced them to a shambolic, unimaginative, uninspiring body of players that couldn’t catch, couldn’t pass, couldn’t win their lineouts and worst of all, couldn’t bring the same passion and intensity as the Pumas.
“The All Blacks have such a proud record, over such a long time, and this performance will have to go down as one that shamed the legacy.”