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All Blacks coach Ian Foster is one step away from becoming an all-time great
By Finn Morton
A year is a mighty long time in rugby. About 53 weeks ago, fans were just about ready to storm New Zealand Rugby Headquarters with pitchforks and torches after the All Blacks’ fifth loss in six Tests.
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The All Blacks were beaten, convincingly, by Ireland and France during their end-of-season tour in 2021, were beaten by Ireland again on home soil, and had just lost to fierce rivals South Africa.
Panic started to kick in as fans began to desperately search for the answer. But time waits for no man.
The countdown to the 2023 Rugby World Cup continued to tick by, and the All Blacks’ uncharacteristically poor form continued to trouble fans from a rugby-mad nation.
New Zealanders expect nothing short of excellence from their rugby heroes, and things couldn’t have gone further off-script. Fans made their voices heard on social media as they began to call for change.
By all accounts, coach Ian Foster was on the brink of being sacked when the All Blacks travelled to Johannesburg.
With the Freedom Cup on the line, the New Zealanders braced themselves for a rugby war at the cauldron that is Ellis Park. It was a must-win, and that’s putting it lightly.
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It was a gladiatorial contest, as it always is between these two great rivals, and the All Blacks emerged victorious. Players were surely filled with a sense of pride, but mostly relief.
After returning home, the New Zealand Rugby Board confirmed that Foster’s job was safe through to the end of the World Cup. That press conference was held almost a year ago at the time of writing.
“We’re very excited about the potential of this incredibly capable and experienced coaching trio going forward,” NZR chair Stewart Mitchel told reporters on August 17.
Many fans weren’t pleased. They wanted Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson at the helm – and while they would eventually get their wish from 2024, Foster would continue to prepare the All Blacks for battle.
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But those same supporters are now singing Ian Foster’s praises.
Foster, along with assistant coaches Jason Ryan and Joe Schmidt, have turned the All Blacks’ ship around after sailing through dire conditions.
The All Blacks are on an 11-Test unbeaten run, and are now the bookies’ favourites to win the Rugby World Cup. That’s what Foster needs to cement his legacy as an all-time great – no matter how unlikely that might’ve seemed last year.
Foster has collected trophy after trophy like Thanos going after the infinity stones. The coach has achieved near-unrivalled feats – and to be blunt, others must give credit where it’s due.
With Foster at the helm, the All Blacks have won four Bledisloe Cups, four Freedom Cups, three Rugby Championship crowns and a Tri Nations title as well.
That’s a 100 per cent success rate, in terms of winning major trophies, over a decorated three-and-a-half-year tenure as head coach.
While assistants Ryan and Schmidt have received widespread praise for helping solve the All Blacks’ woes, Foster won most of those trophies without the all-star duo.
Foster has never really received the praise or appreciation that he so justifiably deserves.
But that’s not quite the full story. More history beckons.
Foster can join former mentor Sir Steve Hansen as the only other person to win a World Cup title as an assistant coach, before hoisting the Webb Ellis Cup again in their first attempt as head coach.
If Foster is able to etch his name into rugby immortality with such an incredible achievement, then the losses of years gone by will be practically forgotten.
The defeats to France and Ireland – which includes a series defeat to Andy Farrell’s men on home soil, it’s worth noting – will be regarded as pivotal turning points and lessons learned.
Much like South Africa’s 57-nil loss to New Zealand in 2017, with the Springboks going on to win the World Cup two years later, these shortcomings will be forgiven.
Nobody likes to lose, especially the All Blacks and their fans, but sometimes it’s a necessity. As the old adage goes, “You learn more from losing than winning.”
If the All Blacks claim eternal glory in France later this year, then Foster will have officially become one of the greats – much like Sir Steve Hansen and Sir Graham Henry.
With his World Cup winners medal draped around his neck, Foster will hand over the reins to incoming coach Scott Robertson on the way to his knighting ceremony next January.
Win or lose this RWC, Foster will never be regarded as a great. His record of firsts is too long. First loss to the Pumas, first loss at home to the Pumas, First series loss to Ireland (at home). Selection woes, players in the wrong positions and being admitted with no form. Serious game plan failures and no innovation.
The slide under his regime continued unchecked until Ryan and Schmidt arrived, then suddenly new players also arrived, game plans appeared, attacking structures emerged and defensive lines shored up. These changes were not implemented by the head coach, or why wouldn't he have tried something, anything, sooner? It is all on the assistants.
He certainly has a better chance then a year ago, I would like to see him get the cup!!
On some of the comments, I'm pretty sure Foster had to make the calls himself to sack Plumtree and Moar and the ask Ryan to join and Schmidt, if those two didn't he wouldn't have been retained. NZR didn't force Ryan in.
There's no doubt the assistants are very important as field coaches as Foster can rely on the new two to deliver game plans to beat teams.
Selective data points in this article skew the reality. The counterpoint to those wins was many, many first up losses and general embarrassment
Ryan and Schmidt turned the AB'S around. Foster is the front man..the manager.
At this point with our first series loss at home to Ireland, our first loss to Argentina, our first loss to Argentina at home, our worst winning run (5 losses of 6 games), our worst winning record in a calendar year (50% in 2020) , our worst ranking ever (5th, our previous worst was 3rd), and other bad record after bad record, Foster winning the world cup might only barely break even to return his coaching reputation back to just neutral.
Finn Morton you are on the take. He has coached by what seems to be not even trial and error but continuous error until forced to make change. First mistake, names Cane as captain in the first year of Covid with no rugby being played, just so he's seen to do something? Continues to make poor selections because he has favourites, Jordie must be the 15, Cane must be 7, Beauden is the 10, Reiko is a 13 (50/50) as to whether elwe are better with him as a wing or Centre. Aaron Smith must repeatedly put up high kicks from the base of the ruck and let's hope the opposition spill it. He has a poor record as a coach, and any suggestion he has a great record is a farce. Without Schmidt and Ryan we would still be a mess, and yes we have trophies, but let's be fair, even a poorly coached and selected All Blacks side will win games
The author omits that going into 2023, after 3 full seasons as head coach, Foster had the worst winning percentage of any All Black head coach in the professional era and fell to an all-time low of #4 ranking in the world.
I don’t hate Foster but the assistant coaching change of Jason Ryan was forced on Foster, it was not his choice. And Ryan made drastic changes to the pack immediately starting two young props that Foster had not even selected with DeGroot and Lomax. Under Ryan, the All Blacks can now scrum for penalties (as they did to win Bledisloe II), score tries off mauls, and rarely give up a maul try to opposition, none of these things were All Black strengths during Foster’s first 3 seasons in charge as his All Black pack were routinely dominated.
He selected his assistants and when the times got tough he did not stand up for them, did he?
First loss to Argentina - realistically, it was meant to happen at some time - but just to be certain, it happened twice under his watch.
Jordie HAD to be fullback, there were really no other options, until, actually, there are other options, both Beauden and Will Jordan - and that is not a speculation, the last few matches showed that Jordie at inside centre works just fine, as also do Beauden or Will at fullback.
… other misreads - the props selection before Ryan came in (especially tight head), the carousel at fly-half before Joe Schmidt came in and so it goes…
Might add to the great achievements the first loss at home to Ireland.
Over the last 4 years consistently the fourth best team in the world after (in no particular order) - Ireland, France, South Africa.
Quite where is the greatness I don’t know. Thank god for the assistants, at least now there is a chance at the RWC, as a year ago there was none.
What a terrible article. I don't agree with some of the vitriol that Foster was subjected to but I didn't feel he was the right appointment to start and nothing I have seen has changed that opinion. He took one of the best teams in the world and it steadily declined under his stewardship. Foster's hand picked team failed, if NZR was not completely unable to admit fault then he would also have gone last year, he's a lame duck head coach being carried by Ryan and Schmidt. If the ABs win RWC'23, which is far from a given, it will certainly not be down to Foster being an all time great.
Where else could you have your assistants do your job for you (Ryan and Schimdt), get a very generous salary and get roundly praised for it all?
Foster really scored his dream job.