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Ian Foster's defiant approach with the All Blacks
By Ben Smith
Ex-All Black head coach Ian Foster has reflected on his turbulent time as All Blacks head coach in an open and honest podcast on Between Two Beers.
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For the record, Foster’s All Blacks did some great things despite the stumbles early in the tenure.
He kept all the silverware away from rivals Australia and South Africa, winning the Tri-Nations (2020), and Rugby Championship three times. He kept the Freedom Cup and Bledisloe Cup. And took the All Blacks to within a whisker of a fourth Rugby World Cup title.
Those achievements are not to be discounted. Scott Robertson has already lost two trophies in his first year at the helm.
However, the issue with Ian Foster was taking a defiant approach that made it seem like he wouldn’t take accountability for any of the shortcomings.
Reflecting on the turbulence leading into the Irish series, there are a lot of external reasons offered up as excuses.
One belief he has is that New Zealand ‘fell behind’ due to Covid, as a result of playing Super Rugby internally only against each other and missing out on playing Northern Hemisphere teams.
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Firstly, New Zealand was the first country in the world to restart professional rugby while others were still locked down. If anything, New Zealand got a head start on other nations. South Africa took an entire year off.
No nation had an ideal scenario to deal with, yet New Zealand’s was arguably the best. The All Blacks were the first team, along with the Wallabies, to begin playing international rugby again.
Secondly, without even playing Northern Hemisphere teams in 2020 the All Blacks finished with three wins from six Tests, a sub-par return given the advantages New Zealand held over Australia and Argentina.
The All Blacks suffered a shock loss to Argentina in Sydney. After the disbandment of the Jaguares in the original Super Rugby competition, Argentina played no rugby for months leading into that Test.
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Los Pumas were isolated away from family and friends, with reports the entire squad dealt with Covid outbreaks. Yet, they overcame all that to beat the All Blacks, all of whom had played Super Rugby for months beforehand.
That season highlighted issues that had nothing to do with Northern Hemisphere teams, yet Foster already held a belief they were somehow disadvantaged.
They had unique circumstances that were difficult to deal with, but it’s hard to believe they, or any team, were more disadvantaged than Los Pumas.
During the time, Foster maintained company lines preferring to talk with eternal optimism at all times, which rubbed the public the wrong way when performances didn’t show that.
There’s a line between a glass half-full mentality and being defiant despite reality. It starts to look arrogant and deluded. The public wanted accountability and recognition that this wasn’t good enough for the All Blacks and they never really got that.
By 2021 everyone knew that Ireland and France were the teams to beat in Europe and they would present the toughest Tests for the All Blacks. The All Blacks were winning that year, but didn’t pass the eye test in a number of ways.
When they lost to France and Ireland, it was the manner of the defeats that mattered. How poor the structures looked and how unorganised the team looked with ball in hand.
The 2021 end of year tour had alarm bells ringing yet there was more positive defiance from Foster and endless talk of ‘learnings’. It was this messaging that created dislike.
Veteran lock Sam Whitelock shared his views in his autobiography which shed a different light on the situation.
“We were not being coached well enough. We needed to change. I recognised that after the northern tour at the end of 2021, when we were well beaten by France and Ireland and, in my opinion, had prepared too many excuses for our under-performance.”
The first two years of Foster’s tenure hadn’t convinced anyone they were on the right track, but the messaging to the public remained overly optimistic without fully taking accountability.
You can’t keep telling someone the sky is purple when they know it is blue. All this did was create brewing distrust that would explode into anger when the rubber finally met the road in the 2022 Irish series.
Foster seemed shocked and surprised at the public response to the historic Irish series loss, the first on New Zealand soil in a long, long time. Some fans definitely crossed the line.
The result had been coming, but not solely for the reasons that Foster believed. There were warning lights the entire time that they chose to ignore and not address.
Because he had been telling the public to be positive, the result made it look like the captain of the ship couldn’t see the iceberg ahead.
Foster had been touting that improvements were being made and the All Blacks were taking the learnings after each loss, it made for an embarrassment when the next one came in the same manner.
It was a complete communications disaster, avoiding the semblance of accountability with continued misguided optimism. Being accountable and honest during those times would’ve served Foster better, even if it wouldn’t have made the time easier.
As soon as coaching changes were made, the team started to look much better with Jason Ryan and Joe Schmidt entering the fray as assistants. Almost overnight, within a matter of months, the team’s performance was looking much better.
The knocked off the Springboks at Ellis Park and went on a seven-game undefeated streak to end 2022, extending into 2023 and hitting the Rugby World Cup in fine form.
Changes were made and immediately the team looked better. So what really was the cause of issues from 2020-2022? Covid disruptions or coaching? The evidence suggests it was well and truly the latter. The team improved rapidly once the assistants changed, let’s not sugarcoat it.
Had the changes not occurred in mid-2022, the All Blacks would have been dumped out of the Rugby World Cup after straight set losses to France and Ireland.
Foster rightly never threw his original assistants under the bus, and didn’t need to. But his messaging to the public during that time didn’t fly and stirred dislike among the public.
Whilst the backlash is not easy to handle or experience, acknowledging that the public are right, that you are on same side as them helps.
Continually telling them things are alright and getting better when they clearly aren’t, does not.
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The springboks had absolutely no right to win the world cup. They should have been gone in the quarter final, and were at best, just like 2019, the 5th or 6th best team at the world cup.
Foster and the All Blacks are should have their names in history.
Foster was vilified over and over again and became a laughing stock at one time but he didnt really deserve it. He stayed resolute and true to his principles. You have to admire the man. For a long time he also realised he was a dead man walking but kept trucking on and almost won the world cup. Foster will not go down as a great coach but he cannot be remembered as a bad one. He won plenty of trophies, enough to be considered a coach who kept NZ at the top of the game and who was a winner. Foster doesnt have anything to prove to anyone even if he and plenty of others feel that way
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He will of course have the opportunity to reclaim those lost trophies this year so don’t adversely judge him just yet. The team was showing promising signs in the latter part of last season. Sometimes the opposition plays better and well enough to beat us. No shame in that so long as learnings are definitely made.
Two against a similarly skilled team, coached by someone with far more experience. Hardly a damning statement.