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'I understand the frustration': Ian Foster issues message to All Blacks fans
By Alex McLeod
Beleaguered All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has issued a message to disenchanted All Blacks fans in the wake of last week’s series defeat to Ireland.
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Fronting media to address his side’s shortcomings from their historic loss to the Irish on Friday, Foster acknowledged the frustrations of the New Zealand public as the All Blacks endure their worst rut in recent memory.
Falling to their first-ever home defeats to Ireland, the All Blacks succumbed to their first series loss since 1994 after losing four of their last five tests, leaving them in a worst-ever World Rugby rankings of fourth place.
As such, New Zealand Rugby [NZR] was under immense external pressure to relieve Foster of his duties as All Blacks boss, but the national governing body stuck by their man, even in spite of chief executive Mark Robinson’s comments that recent results have been “not acceptable”.
Instead, changes to Foster’s team of assistants – John Plumtree, Brad Mooar, Scott McLeod and Greg Feek – are expected over the coming days.
That won’t be enough to satisfy large portions of All Blacks fans, many of whom had negative reactions to NZR’s retention of Foster.
Aware of the public’s perception towards him, Foster moved to level with fans shortly after the announcement of his All Blacks squad for the Rugby Championship.
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He started by commenting on the abrupt cancellation of last Sunday’s usual media briefing, which led to an online saga between past and present NZR communications executives.
Acting as All Blacks media manager for the Ireland series, Jo Malcolm revealed in a LinkedIn post that it was her decision, not Foster’s, to can the traditional post-match press conference as she believed the media “wanted blood” from the All Blacks boss.
However, Foster made it clear that he understands his responsibilities to communicate with the Kiwi public via the media.
“I understand the frustration. All I want to say to you, on that regard, is that I, as a head coach, would never, ever not communicate with my fanbase when it’s expected that I communicate with them,” Foster said.
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“Whatever happened then, I just want to give that categoric thing – I know my responsibilities to talk to the fanbase, and if I knew that I was supposed to do that, I would do that, all the time.”
He added that he respects the opinions of All Blacks fans who want him gone, but backed himself to overturn his side’s fortunes.
“I love the passion of our fans, and I love the opinions. That is what it is, but I guess all I can assure people is the person that I am and my role in this team. I’m not here for any other reason to do the best thing I can for this team,” Foster said.
“Right now, I can understand frustrations that we’ve lost a series, but my goal and my job is to put perspective around that to make sure we take the lessons and this All Blacks team comes out stronger, and I want to be part of the solution.
“Will there be some change? Yes there will. Like I said, I’ll let you know shortly.”
Asked whether he has felt that some have wanted him to fail as All Blacks coach, Foster reinforced his view that he believes he remains the right man to lead the national side.
“I’m kind of the Covid coach, aren’t I? I don’t know. I can’t control anyone else’s agendas. I’ve never seen this as a popularity contest,” he said.
“Like I said, the All Blacks coach is about connecting with the group of players and believing in them, and you’ve always got to test to see whether you’re the right person there.
“I believe I am, but the comment I made being resilient, well I’ve learned that pretty quickly.”
Foster was also quizzed on how the imminent changes to his coaching set-up, as well as the axing of Pita Gus Sowakula and Karl Tu’inukuafe from his Rugby Championship squad, could be portrayed as scapegoating by the New Zealand public.
He replied by saying that personnel changes within the All Blacks environment are never easy, but are made with the team’s best interests at heart.
“When you make any changes, it goes through that. Nothing’s pleasant, but, at the end of the day, our whole planning is about how can this team improve and do what it needs to do on the park,” Foster said.
“Like I said, I know I’m accountable, but at the moment, when we look at the whole thing, we’ve identified clear areas of change that we think we need, that the group feels we need, and we’re going to instigate that and get stuck into our work.”
Foster will have his first opportunity to put those changes into action when the All Blacks face the Springboks across two tests in South Africa to open their Rugby Championship campaign in a fortnight’s time.
While he admitted that there is intense pressure on him for the All Blacks to perform in those fixtures, Foster spoke highly of the prospect of trying to achieve success against the Springboks.
“There’s a lot riding on it, and what’s riding on it is that we want to get our games going to the levels that we want, and that we want our fanbase and our country to be proud of us, clearly, but what an exciting challenge,” he said.
“We’re going to South Africa, we’ve got two tests in this Rugby Championship, we’ve got both tests away against South Africa.
“Couldn’t be harder in many ways, but when your back’s against the wall a little bit, then this is a great place for the All Blacks to be, and we’ve got to respond.”
Whatever else you say about him, Foster excels at managing and manipulating the NZR board. Eg the new coaches. Losses in the RC or Bledisloe? The new coaches haven’t had time to fix things. A poor NH tour? Now the WC is just around the corner and it’s too late to change. By making these minimal coaching moves he has fixed his role to the WC almost no matter what the results.
As a man of immense hubris he clearly does not understand or even recognise the frustration. If he did, he'd have quit.
For a number of years now I've listened to and read Ian Foster speak about the All Blacks. But I've never actually heard him say anything. He also doesn't seem to understand why us AB fans are frustrated. It's not that we lost to Ireland, it's that we never looked like we could beat them, or knew what to do when things weren't working. It's like there wasn't even a Plan A let alone plans B and C.