Fozzie finally gets balance right for modern game
In July last year, when Ireland were tormenting the All Blacks with their wonderfully structured and robust rugby, it felt like stubbornness and a refusal to accept what was plain for everyone else to see was going to be the undoing of coach Ian Foster.
There were Ireland, so cohesive and certain about what they were doing, playing this simple but elegant rugby built on power, technical excellence, discipline, mobility and a unity of purpose.
The All Blacks, in contrast, were a bit of a rabble. The fundamentals of their game were patchy. They leaked soft tries to Ireland’s driving maul, their attack flourished in the first test but disappeared in the next two and they picked up three cards in one half in Dunedin.
They were everything Ireland weren’t and everyone in New Zealand could see there needed to be a massive reset.
Ireland were producing a type of rugby New Zealanders wanted the All Blacks to play, and to get there, there would need to be changes in coaching personnel, selection and a rethink about what modern rugby was all about.
But it didn’t feel, not in July last year certainly, that Foster was seeing the same things as everyone else and that he was perhaps overly committed to people and plans he shouldn’t have been.
So, too, could everyone see the All Blacks had the wrong players in their front row.
Super Rugby had thrown up young gems in Ethan de Groot, Tamaiti Williams and Fletcher Newell, but none were picked to play Ireland.
It seemed mad for the All Blacks to face a team full of mobile, rugged, allcourt props with their own contingent of relatively immobile, limited front rowers, none of whom had the same range of attributes as their Irish counterparts.
Kiwis were screaming for the next generation to be given their chance — but there was a reluctance from Foster, who was sticking with the likes of Angus Ta’avao, Karl Tu’inukuafe and Nepo Laulala, and his nod to the future came by picking Aiden Ross.
Just as there was near unanimity in the rugby fraternity that the likes of Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu and Gus Sowakula didn’t have the graft, or seek-and-destroy mindset to play with the sort of destructive power the likes of Peter O’Mahony, Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier were delivering for the Irish.
Many also said Jordie Barrett needed to be shifted to No 12 to give the midfield the physical presence and ball-playing smarts it was missing, and that if the All Blacks wanted their attack to develop, they had to commit to picking Richie Mo’unga as their playmaker.
It is 15 months since that series defeat to Ireland and just about everything everyone said needed to change has changed, and the difference in the All Blacks now compared with their first test of 2022 is staggering.
Assistant coaches John Plumtree and Brad Mooar have gone, and there are nine changes in the All Blacks’ quarterfinal line-up from the team that played the opening test against Ireland last year, while all three Barrett brothers are in different positions — the right ones — and Mo’unga is starting at 10 instead of coming off the bench.
The young, dynamic props are all in the 23, and in Tyrel Lomax, the All Blacks have found the mobile yet setpiece efficient tighthead they’ve been searching for, while Shannon Frizell has emerged as the answer at No 6 — another problem that was looking almost unsolvable in July last year.
The hallmark of a good coach is an ability to adapt, to admit when things aren’t working and be brave to make changes.
But Foster’s All Blacks have experienced what is effectively a revolution since July last year and they bear little resemblance to the team they were.
The coaching set-up has changed, the players have changed, the game plan has changed, and maybe bar the selection of Finlay Christie on the bench ahead of Cam Roigard, there’s an alignment now between the type of rugby the All Blacks want to play and the players they have picked.
And so, too, is there a sense the All Blacks have picked a younger, more dynamic team that can match Ireland for physicality, mobility and athleticism and stick it out in the collision warfare trench.
It’s a team that looks equipped to play modern rugby and that has addressed every failing that was exposed last July.
Foster has seen, learned and adapted, and whether the All Blacks make it through their quarter-final or not, there is at least the comfort of knowing they headed there with a team that looked about how everybody wanted it to look.