Foster’s job locked in, support roles also soon
Almost three months ago to the day, August 24,, NZ Rugby announced it had extended All Blacks coach Ian Foster’s contract through to the 2023 World Cup.
Now NZ Rugby’s high performance unit, which along with chief executive Mark Robinson recommended to the board that Foster be re-appointed, must manage the review that is charged with determining what went wrong for the All Blacks in Paris and Dublin.
Consecutive defeats to France and Ireland at the end of the All Blacks’ mammoth season has done little to quell anxiety about NZ Rugby’s decision to add two years to Foster’s contract so early, and in doing so ignore Crusaders coach Scott Robertson as a potential replacement.
When confirming Foster had been re-signed, Robinson said NZ Rugby was satisfied with the progress the All Blacks had made since he replaced Steve Hansen after the 2019 World Cup.
Feedback from senior players had been sought before the board unanimously signed-off on Foster’s future. In doing so, they offered stability – something all professional sports coaches treasure.
That, in turn, gave
Foster the confidence to coach a squad of almost
40 players during a 12-week tour of Australia, the United States and Europe without worrying about having to argue his corner when he returned.
The All Blacks won the Rugby Championship, albeit with a narrow loss to the Springboks on the Gold Coast in the final round, but it was what unfolded against France and Ireland that has critics asking whether NZ Rugby should have waited before deciding on Foster’s future.
Robertson’s name, the man Foster beat for the top job in late 2019, looms large in the busy world of social media. Many believe he would be a better fit for a team that looked short of ideas against the swift defensive lines presented by France and Ireland, and lacked the ruthless efficiency of previous All Blacks sides.
NZ Rugby’s general manager professional rugby and performance Chris Lendrum said a review into the All Blacks’ season would start after Foster and the All Blacks leave MIQ: ‘‘Over the balance of this year, and the first part of next year as we lead into Super Rugby Pacific, we will finalise that.’’
Mike Anthony heads the high performance unit that will be charged with asking why the All Blacks ended their year on such a dud note in Europe. Lendrum, however, wasn’t going to put the boot in.
‘‘We support ‘Foz’ [Foster] and the team and we are just looking forward to getting them home and getting into the work to assess what we need to do to improve next year,’’ Lendrum said.
Post-season reviews of the All Blacks are always thorough, even when the team has recorded exceptional results. So this one could be brutal. It’s standard practice for all national teams to have reviews.
‘‘The All Blacks, themselves, will do their own internal debrief,’’ Lendrum said. ‘‘We look to match those two together, we focus on environment, performance and people and work through a review process where we essentially get 360 degree feedback on our key people.’’
Unless the outcome of the review is damning, there appears little likelihood of Foster being replaced. Still, NZ Rugby’s decision not to delay a call on Foster’s future meant it always had the potential to paint itself into a corner. He had never coached against the world champion Springboks, who didn’t play in 2020 because of the pandemic, and had been unable to pit his skills against any northern opponents until recently.
A win over France would have earned a pass-mark for their season. But the inability to rebound from the defeat in Dublin has left the All Blacks with a 12-win, 3-loss record.
Lendrum confirmed Foster’s assistants John Plumtree, Greg Feek, Scott McLeod and Brad Mooar were still finalising details on their contracts beyond this 2021.
‘‘Those discussions are just about finalised. As I said, we support Foz and his team. And we will make some announcements in due course.’’*