1
'He's not going anywhere': Ex-All Blacks weigh in on Ian Foster's coaching future
By Sam Smith
Two former All Blacks have weighed in on the highly-speculated future of under-pressure All Blacks coach Ian Foster in the wake of New Zealand’s historic series defeat to Ireland.
ADVERTISEMENT
Foster is under immense public pressure to leave his post as All Blacks boss after guiding his side to a first-ever home series loss at the hands of the Irish, who convincingly beat the Kiwis 32-22 in Wellington on Saturday.
That result came a week after Ireland clinched a maiden win over the All Blacks in New Zealand, beating the hosts 23-12 in Dunedin.
As such, the All Blacks have now lost four of their last five tests – their worst run of form since they lost fives tests on the trot in 1998 – and have plummeted to a worst-ever World Rugby ranking of fourth place.
The series defeat to Ireland was also only their fourth-ever home series loss, and their first since France swept them over the course of two tests in 1994.
Now with the worst winning record of any All Blacks coach in the professional era (66.67 percent), Foster’s position at the helm of the All Blacks has come under fire.
After refusing to comment on his future in the role despite being asked to do so four times during Saturday’s post-match press conference, Foster was then made unavailable to speak to media by the All Blacks for his usual Sunday morning debrief.
ADVERTISEMENT
That was soon followed by a statement issued by New Zealand Rugby [NZR] chief executive Mark Robinson, who labelled the series defeat to Ireland as “not acceptable” and said a review into the performance of the All Blacks is now being undertaken.
All of this has led to a media and social media firestorm regarding what role Foster has with the All Blacks ahead of the Rugby Championship, which has drawn the ire of All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan.
Speaking on The Breakdown, Kirwan said he was left frustrated by Robinson’s statement as Foster’s livelihood remains in the balance with less than three weeks until the All Blacks open their two-test series against the Springboks in South Africa.
“That statement from the CEO really annoys me,” Kirwan said as he called into question the need for another review after NZR conducted a performance review of the All Blacks following their underwhelming 2021 campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We’ve had it six months ago… Foster reviewed well, his assistants didn’t, and I presume he went and said, ‘We’ll fix it’. After six months, if it’s still clunky and it’s not working, what do you do?”
Kirwan went on to claim that Robinson is “throwing his coach under the bus” by not providing a definitive statement about Foster’s position as as All Blacks coach as speculation continues to swirl about his future.
The 63-test World Cup winner added that something must change within the All Blacks to fix the “disconnection” within the playing group, which he suggested was similar to that of his ill-fated stint as Blues head coach between 2013 and 2015.
“I think there’s something wrong within the camp,” Kirwan told The Breakdown.
“I’ve never coached at that level, but I was a bad coach. We couldn’t win a football game, and it’s because I wasn’t good enough. I got reviewed and I had to change stuff. I still wasn’t good enough.
“We couldn’t win a fight. We’d lose games by two points, players just disconnected. There’s a disconnection in that team. I feel it. I don’t know for certain, but I feel a disconnection, and Ian Foster has to sort that out somehow.”
Kirwan’s fellow panellist and fellow ex-All Blacks wing Jeff Wilson, meanwhile, said that there won’t be a change of All Blacks head coach as he believed Foster is “determined” to hold onto the role and turn his side’s fortunes around.
“Ian Foster wants to keep this job. He is determined to be the All Blacks coach,” Wilson told The Breakdown.
“He is not going anywhere. He is not going anywhere. I think he is determined. He wants to help be a solution for the All Blacks.”
In saying that, Wilson expressed concerns over the way in which the All Blacks performed against Ireland, but questioned whether it would be the right call to appoint a new head coach with the Rugby Championship a matter of weeks away.
“Clearly it’s concerning that we’re not starting well. It’s clearly concerning, and like you say, it looks as though we get to a point where we maybe run out of ideas, or the fact that, defensively, we start to gamble,” he said.
“We’re starting to gamble, guys running out of the line because we’re under that much pressure.
“Clearly there are some systematic things that we need to look at, but for us to try and make a change now, to put a group of coaches together for the Rugby Championship in two-and-a-half weeks’ time?”
Kirwan responded by saying that he doesn’t want to see anyone within the All Blacks lose their job, but reaffirmed that those involved with the side must ask hard questions of themselves in order to change their fortunes.
“All I’m saying is I don’t want to see anyone lose their job. I feel for Fozzie. I feel for the players, but if it’s not working – Colesy [All Blacks hooker Dane Coles] said it, we’ve always done it – look in the mirror and tell the truth,” he said.
“If someone’s not up to it, unfortunately, and it might be a player or a coach, then Fozzie will have to make some change.
“If all’s good and we’re on the right path, I go, ‘Okay, Ireland were better and we weren’t that good’, but I don’t see that at the moment. That’s what hurts me.”
Foster must go. He has always had a terrible record as a head coach, and we're surprised he's doing the same at test level? He coached the chiefs for 8 years, nearly came last, then Rennie won twice with the same team.
Face facts. Foster is a nice guy but a terrible head coach. He must go if there is to be any chance of improvement. We still have a year - which is what rassie had to get the boks to win the rwc.
To me, the All Blacks are more of a professional franchise than a national team, the fact that the 'All Black' title is used more often than 'New Zealand' by media commentators is indicative of the importance of maintaining the value of the All Black brand for NZ rugby and maintaining all those commercial endorsements that pays for their highly paid first pick contract players.
Ian Foster is not just a head coach he is also the caretaker of the
All Black brand much the same as any other coach is in professional franchise sport, the nepotistic days of hierarchical appointments that last for 3 years whether they are good or bad should be over, if the All Black machine need a few cogs replacing to make it run smoother then so be it, but time is now against this team, a team that should be close to being well tuned for the coming RWC by now, not misfiring when under pressure.
I suspect that Ian Foster will remain NZ coach simply because he has the endorsement of NZR and his sacking will have a potential domino effect on other management positions as well, the reason given to retain him will be that Foster does have the big game experience needed to make the All Blacks successful at the RWC, which is the main goal for his tenure as head coach, but it's still possible that if the coming Rugby Championship shows up even more flaws in the AB machine a new assistant coach may be included for the end of season northern tour, but I don't think it will be Razor Robinson, for whatever reason he does not seem to be the NZR's favourite son.
We need to expose younger players to the locking positions and bring inform props like De grout and Taki- aho and use Akira at no12 you need some stability, he has speed he's strong and can pass on either hand, rugby league use 2nd rowers to fill in at center, I think the game plan like how we used Nonu is worth a shot to use Akira at no 12. Otherwise we need to copy Ireland's form of attack and defensive patterns.
Delusional if NZRU continue with Foster as he is the worst performing All Black coach of all time, and regardless of poor performance of player and assistance coach it stops with Foster. Need to give Robertson or Schimdt a shot as its not late if they act now. South African Rassie Erasmus proved it. He came in 2018 and took Springboks to win both Rugby Championship and World Cup.
The responsibility for this mess lies with NZR; all the other teams in the world's top 10 have changed their game significantly over the past 5 years or so, except for the AB's. Blaming the players is abject, in terms of both skill and stamina they are imho the best roster in the world, in terms of tactics and discipline, however... Fortunately both tactics and discipline can be learned, just not from a dinosaur like Foster.
Fosatr can be a solution ..... if he resigns....
I don’t expect NZR to make no changes - given the signals such as Robinson’s statement in particular. What I can see is some combo of keeping Foster, firing some or all coaches under him, and moving Schmidt to some sort of Director of Rugby role where he hires coaches etc and is the de facto head honcho. I.e. a mess. NZR do not fill me with confidence. The silver(lake) lining may just be a degree of pressure from NZR’s new partners for a clean slate solution - an upfront cost now to limit the risk of long term damage to the reputation of the ABs and the consequent commercial downsides.
Joe Schmidt and Greg Feek are already part of the wider coaching group. They helped plan Ireland's rise to the top. A position that that they clearly deserve. But the truth is, there's only one Master Chef who is in charge of the kitchen. Right now, it's Fozzy who, no matter how you spin it, has the worst coaching record in ABs history. Money is NOT an issue now with Silverlake. Cut your losses. Ditch Foz. Promote Joe and Greg as a short to medium term RWC play. Start rebuilding. Don't faff around. NZRFU look like possums in the headlights.
, meanwhile, said that there won’t be a change of All Blacks head coach as he believed Foster is “determined” to hold onto the role and turn his side’s fortunes around.
If this is true, it indicates a wilful blindness to face rhe facts and a total lack of humility. Appalling
Sir John Kirwan is right. But Fozzie must go for the All Blacks to reclaim their past glory.