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Ian Foster full of belief as All Blacks prepare to upset Ireland
By Finn Morton
Coach Ian Foster truly believes the All Blacks will upset Ireland this weekend. You could see the confidence in Foster’s eyes as the coach sat down in front of reporters at Stade de France on Friday.
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There was no sense of fragility or nervousness in his voice either, and the so-called fear of failure that’s been asked of the All Blacks by reporters this week was nowhere to be found.
Ireland come into this Test on the back of an impressive 17-Test unbeaten streak, and of course, they beat the All Blacks in New Zealand twice last year to claim a historic series win. They deserve to be favourites.
But the All Blacks have put in the work and coach Foster just wants his players to back themselves against the world’s top-ranked side in a mammoth quarter-final in front of a sold-out crowd.
“I think the work that they’ve done. I think the work that we’ve put in the last month, the last three or four months really,” Foster told reporters.
“We’ve always known when you come to this World Cup that, assuming we did the business in the pool play, it was most likely going to be Ireland or South Africa so either way you’ve got a monster quarter-final.
“It’s not like this is a surprise. We’ve mentally been ready for it, we mentally know that we have to prepare a week at a time and I think we’ve been getting a lot better at doing that.
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“I have full belief in this group. We know that tomorrow there’s going to be, if you look at the quarterfinals there’s going to be four quality teams that won’t be there in the semi-finals and we’re pretty determined that we’re not going to be one of them.
“The only way you go into these games is believing in your game and who you are and we do.”
As hours continue to tick by ahead of the most highly anticipated quarterfinals in Rugby World Cup history, the anticipation continues to build at a rapid pace for all four games.
But this clash between New Zealand and Ireland has an added flavour to it. There isn’t just a semi-final spot on the line but rather national bragging rights years in the making.
The All Blacks are still hurting from that disastrous series defeat last year, with Beauden Barrett telling NZR+ that “it’s not like someone’s died but it’s probably the next worst thing.”
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Meanwhile, there are thousands of Irish supporters ready to sing Zombie as loud as they possibly can at the Parisian venue. It’s win or go home for both teams.
This is rugby at its very best.
“We’ve got to nail things that we’ve been growing in our game,” Foster mentioned.
“Rugby is a simple game in playoffs, it’s about control through your set-piece, it’s about having the confidence to execute your game plan and not tighten up and the discipline side – How to control yourself when the pressure’s on.
“That’s three things I’d give you. But big games are always about that and we know that. We have got to be at our best.”
Foster isnt in control of this match - I dont believe for a minute the Mark Telea story - its the stuff of fantasy but first lets start with this
The international press were channelling Mounga and his team to brand Irelands number ranking onto their chests - better still why dont they just all wear the number 1 - Im searching the press and its unanimous Ireland are going to win and yes they are because the fix is in - and Foster knows that because NZ have wired explosives for their house to come down and the first denotation went off right on que with the bullshite no play sanction on Mark Telea - My god they are desparate why Telea because hes the kind of player that throws away the bookies rule book He is a freak a try scoring sensation who runs on pure instinct same with Roigard from half way at the base if the scrum - makes sense both are no where near the field tomorrow
Shand Foster and senior players like whitlock and cane have presided snd made their judgement - Theres no forgiveness its just a minor curfew breach Bullshite ! Firstly did it even happen - where was the leadership and mentoring when this happened - ohmygoodness what exactly is the culture being engendered here Lets just announce it to the worlds press and have poor Mark live is life walking around like Jesus with a heavy cross - who believes this absolute nonsense - we love you Mark but we have to play by our school boy rules - and how about the collosial blowback with their prep their build up No way is this not planned I say the fix is in
Lomax will not last out the game and they have thrown a boy in Williams to het his ass kicked into the ground yeah makes sense its going to be a demoralizing loss thats what they want not just a loss - it will be a team without a front row loss
BUT If by some miracle nz are in front do not think its over watch out for Whitlock Cane or Christie to infringe and if we win then its because we busted their plans and they pulled out - The game has been hijacked by Officials coaches players sponsors and the media - are they freemasons and cheats ? Any sport that allows betting is CORRUPT
Listen to me . Tomorrow all blacks will destroy them with historic trashing.
Irish laugh … confident but tomorrow the reality in World Cup : trashing always in 1/4
Ireland will be beaten and go home as zombies🧟♂️
Great to see a strong bench, great to see the confidence, hoping they know something we don't,
Incredulous as some may take to the notion, but perhaps he is confident that the team he is finally able to put out this tournament is stronger than the Ireland team, regardless of current World Ranking.
I know, scandalous, right?
Nice fresh look to the NZ pack. I'm content.
Nice, Fozzie has got them primed!!!
FOSTER you are “Not Well”
Ko Aotearoa e Ngunguru Nei !