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Ian Foster insists he does not care who New Zealand face in World Cup final
By PA
New Zealand boss Ian Foster plans to enjoy a bowl of popcorn while watching England’s blockbuster with South Africa after his side eased into the Rugby World Cup final by dispatching Argentina.
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Foster can put his feet up for Saturday evening’s colossal semi-final clash between Steve Borthwick’s men and the Springboks thanks to a crushing 44-6 success over Los Pumas in Paris.
The 58-year-old expects an “interesting contrast of styles” in the other last-four fixture and is not bothered who the All Blacks face in next week’s showpiece match at Stade de France.
New Zealand barely broke sweat in booking an unprecedented fifth World Cup final appearance and now have the luxury of an extra day’s rest as they await the identity of their ultimate opponents.
“I’ll be watching it,” said Foster. “I’ll probably have some popcorn and sit there and watch it and I don’t care who wins. We’re very much in a focus-about-ourselves stage.
“One thing that extra day does give us, it gives us a bit of a chance to have a break mentally and not to spend too much juice worrying about if it’s them, if it’s them.
“They’re both good teams. South Africa have been playing some brilliant rugby the last few weeks and are clearly on top of their game.
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“But we’ve also seen an English side that just build away quietly and are probably starting to understand how they want to play and they’re starting to get really good at how they want to play and believe in that.
“It will be an interesting contrast of styles.”
He also said they were not focusing on the quarter final because Uruguay could knock them out: ‘do the maths’ and all the focus that week was on Uruguay
NZ want an English win, obviously he can’t say that publicly.
Foster is right to reply that way but it’s a bit of a non story.
An honest headline might be:
‘Poor Journalist asks Foster who he’d prefer, he can’t answer so he says no-one’
isnt it funny how history repeats itself “sort of;” last world cup SA lost its first game played argentina in semis they won we lost our first game against france argentina in semis we won now SA play england in the semi’s well you all know what happened last world cup to ABs v england just puttin it out there ironic or what?
I want boks in finale to smash them . For sure, all blacks want to venge about Twickenham : missing players key , 1 month without playing… and all the players nz will want to bring the cup home and for fozzie also.