Foster wary of smokescreens
Ian Foster has warned against falling for the smokescreens engulfing the world champion All Blacks.
The All Blacks have buried themselves into training ahead of a difficult World Cup opener against South Africa and a tournament that has increasing doubters about New Zealand’s chances of completing an incredible hat-trick of titles in Japan.
New Zealand have looked more fragile in the leadup to this tournament than they did ahead of their 2015 success in England.
Historic losses to Ireland, a record loss to the Wallabies, a squeaky win over England and their three most recent tests with the Boks being unable to separate the two teams, have plenty of critics questioning the All Blacks.
There’s also the usual hype around a New Zealand team so used to setting the standards.
Foster played down the fallibility factor as they placed increasing importance on the World Cup over the back half of this four-year cycle.
‘‘Winning has always been important to us, but it [recent history] really doesn’t mean much now,’’ Foster told media in Japan.
‘‘We’ve seen a number of teams who’ve had big victories that we’ve looked at and gone, ‘wow, that’s a team that could really threaten’.
‘‘So it’s going to be an exciting World Cup – but the rest is just a smokescreen really.’’
Having dismantled the Wallabies in their rematch in Auckland and then signed off their World Cup buildup by humiliating Tonga in Hamilton last weekend, Foster said the coaching staff had relished a week of Cup-specific training at their base in Kashiwa.
‘‘It’s a great week for us to hoe into some work. That’s probably why I’ve got a bit of a bounce because we’ve had a really solid training session,’’ he said.
He promised an attacking mindset from his players in their battle with the Boks to open pool B which also includes Italy, Canada and Namibia.
‘‘We’ve got a game that we’ve tried to develop and been growing, we like to attack,’’ Foster said.
‘‘We like to play with ball in hand and for us the challenge is the skill level and the decisions we make there, but also the choices we make of when to do it and when not to do it. But All Blacks’ rugby, we try to play a fast game, and that won’t change.
‘‘Ultimately, we know they [the Springboks] are going to be 100 per cent prepared in a week’s time. We’ve got to make sure we are.’’