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'If you play under fear then you restrict your options'

Ian Foster. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Ian Foster has suggested that although the All Blacks selectors have made no changes to the starting XV from the side that suffered a historic defeat to Argentina last weekend, that doesn’t mean there’s no accountability.

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Having established a six-point advantage over Los Pumas shortly into the second half of Saturday’s clash, the expectation was that New Zealand would at the very least hold their lead as time wore on, if not build upon what they’d already created. Instead, Argentina were the ones to finish the stronger side, scoring 13 unanswered points to record their first-ever win over the All Blacks in NZ, claiming a 25-18 victory.

As such, there would have been a few shocked faces on Thursday when the All Blacks unveiled their only slightly tweaked squad from the one that fell to Argentina in Christchurch, with Dane Coles, Brodie Retallick, Dalton Papali’i and Beauden Barrett joining the bench in favour of Codie Taylor, Tupou Vaa’i, Akira Ioane and Stephen Perofeta.

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Speaking to media following the team announcement, Foster explained that while the team hadn’t finished strongly at Orangetheory Stadium, they had set themselves up for a good victory earlier in the match.

“A lot of [the reason why the starting XV remains unchanged is] based on the performance early in the game,” he said. “I thought we kept them in the game with probably some inaccuracies on the offside line, which was frustrating, and they went 3, 6, 9, 12 and stayed in the hunt.

“But overall, I thought scrum was strong, the lineout functioned really, really well, our carries were going ok, we were seeing the kicking space, we were doing a lot of good stuff. We’re backing that and making sure we actually grow and get a few more lessons from that as well.”

Prior to Saturday, the All Blacks had only ever once suffered defeat at the hands of the Argentinians – in Foster’s first game against the South Americans as top dog in 2020. On that occasion, the Pumas suffocated their opponents on attack and claimed a well-deserved 25-15 win.

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Despite Foster’s men recording another unwanted piece of history in Christchurch, the head coach suggested that the team would find themselves in even deeper of a rut if the selectors were chopping and changing based only on results.

“For those that want blood, I guess we haven’t given it, have we?” he said. “The message is that we’re being pretty ruthless and hard on ourselves behind the scenes. We’re hurting with where the team’s at but if we dwell too much on that, if you play under fear then you restrict your options, you restrict your thinking and what actually happens if you don’t get the game going the way you want to do it.

“Part of what we’re doing now is [asking ourselves], ‘Ok, what do we believe in?’ And we actually believe in some things that we’re working on now and we believe that there’s enough evidence that there were some things going really good but it didn’t translate to the result that we wanted and we think the best way to build the confidence in those key pressure moments is to put the guys out there who have just been through it, have felt it, and now we’ve talked about some different solutions so we’re backing that. But there’s pressure on. There’s always pressure on individuals when they run out in a black jersey and we’re expecting a response in that particular area.”

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With new coaches and new processes in place, Foster also implied that making too many personnel changes would hinder not enhance the side’s performance, but that there was still adequate pressure on individuals to perform, even if their spots in the starting line-up weren’t immediately at threat.

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“I think the pressure comes from performance – and it always does,” he said. “Yes, I guess as a group we are showing a lot of faith in this XV and we said earlier that we need to grow combinations. And we’ve felt that the best way to make changes is on top of a platform that we can then grow our game further – and clearly we haven’t quite got that platform right yet. Our hunch is to go with a group that is working hard at the moment, that is slowly building combinations, and I think there’s enough evidence that we’re getting there in many parts of our game.

“But it’s actually growing that confidence when we get into the tail end of the game … It’s an area that I think great All Blacks teams have always been good in that last 15 minutes of backing themselves and doing the right thing. We got it right in South Africa and we got it wrong in Christchurch.”

The All Blacks currently sit on a 2-4 record for 2022. Saturday’s match-up in Hamilton presents the team with an opportunity to end a run of three losses at home on the trot after also dropping their final two July-series matches against Ireland.

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Brett 839 days ago

The older players don’t fear being dropped because foster won’t drop them no matter how bad they play just ask Sam cane

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Tom 4 hours ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

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