Coach’s attackin
New ABs chief says he’ll consider playing dual playmakers Mo’unga and Barrett after ‘success’ of 2019 experiment. Marc Hinton reports.
New head coach Ian Foster has a mind for change in the new era of All Blacks rugby, but stops well short of declaring an end to the Richie Mo’unga-Beauden Barrett dual playmaker concept.
Foster, in an interview with the Sunday Star-Times at his rural Waikato home, steadfastly refused to declare the Mo’ungaBarrett tandem a failure, despite the semifinal defeat to England at the World Cup, which many will claim was the only barometer by which it should be measured.
The new All Blacks boss, who succeeds Steve Hansen after eight years as his assistant, made it clear that fielding Barrett as a second playmaking option at fullback was not about to be thrown out with the postWorld Cup bathwater.
It was a situation that he said would remain fluid heading into the July tests against Wales and Scotland, and notably declared it a ‘‘success’’ in 2019.
‘‘There will be a lot of people who will laugh at that because we lost a semifinal, but the reality is we largely got two really good decision-makers heavily involved in the game-making decisions,’’ said Foster.
‘‘Is that the reason we lost a semi? I don’t think so. But, certainly, there were some
You need only look out at the grass surrounding the lifestyle block of new All Blacks coach Ian Foster in rural Waikato to realise it’s been a long, hot summer already.
The sward is brown and parched. Like its owner, it has a thirst that desperately needs quenched.
Foster’s desire is, of course, metaphorical. His thirst involves the new job he has been handed. After eight years as Steve Hansen’s No 2 for the All Blacks, he has been given the keys to the caboose. This is his show now, and he is extremely excited about stamping his own mark on the team he treasures.
He has started that process by assembling a new-look coaching team with whom he will hoist his petard. In former Hurricanes boss John Plumtree, highly regarded Scarlets head coach Brad Mooar, ex-Ireland scrum guru Greg Feek and incumbent All Blacks defence specialist Scott McLeod, Foster is convinced he has the men who can help him deliver his vision for All Blacks rugby.
To explain that vision and just how he might go about implementing it, Foster was hospitable enough to host your writer for a Saturday morning coffee, which evolved into a long chat in the peaceful environment of his rural retreat.
The cold, hard realities of his job are still months away, when he will select his first squad and then prepare them for tests against Wayne Pivac’s Wales and then Scotland. Soon after that will come the Rugby Championship and hugely anticipated matchups against South Africa and the rebuilding Wallabies under Kiwi mentor Dave Rennie.
Foster inherits an All Blacks machine far from broken. Of course, they infamously failed to deliver the World Cup threepeat their country so sought in
Japan last year when they were bashed in the semifinal by England in Yokohama. That aside, the wins and trophies flowed in customary fashion, with one or two exceptions.