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The aspect of the All Blacks win that left Ian Foster 'delighted'

Photo credit: © Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster says he is “delighted” with the defensive output and composed nature of his side’s attack in their 39-0 victory over Los Pumas on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

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The All Blacks kept themselves at the summit of the Rugby Championship table by picking up a bonus-point win over the Argentines at Cbus Super Stadium in an impressive showing that drained their opponents throughout the course of the game.

The result didn’t come easily for the New Zealanders, who struggled to pierce Argentina’s staunch defensive line for much the first half.

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Ian Foster reacts to the All Blacks win over Los Pumas

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Ian Foster reacts to the All Blacks win over Los Pumas

With half-time approaching, it seemed Rieko Ioane would be the only try-scorer of the opening stanza after he latched onto a Beauden Barrett grubber kick inside Argentina’s in-goal area in the 10th minute.

Despite multiple waves of attack, the All Blacks failed to add to their lead until Barrett landed a penalty attempt six minutes from the break to give his side a 10-0 lead.

The floodgates opened after that, though, as both Sevu Reece and Dalton Paplii capitalised on the fatigued Los Pumas defence to cross the chalk in the dying stages of the half before Luke Jacobson grabbed a brace in the second half.

It was that patience and fortitude to stick to their game plan despite the initial resilience of the Argentine defence that was one of many things that impressed Foster when he assessed his team’s performance after the match.

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“Pretty clinical and patient are the words I’d use. Not adjectives that normally describe an All Black win, I guess, but I’m actually delighted with it,” he told reporters post-match.

“If you look at their track record, they’re a hard team to score tries against. They know their defensive system pretty well and they’re willing to go to whatever lengths to try and stop you getting a flow on, and I like the fact that we stuck to what we were doing.

“We made them make a lot of tackles and ultimately got some really good reward on the scoreboard, so, overall, very happy with it.”

Foster partly attributed the New Zealand’s persistence with ball in hand to the leadership of stand-in captain Brodie Retallick, who was one of the standouts for the Kiwis in his first-ever test as All Blacks captain.

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“If you do your research and look at how many tries they conceded in test matches, it’s not many,” Foster said.

“Even in the series in South Africa, the South Africans found it hard to score against them and they built their scores in threes, so I liked our patience.

“Sometimes in the past, we can get a bit distracted when we get slowed down or things don’t work and we’re trying to build a bit of resilience in that space.

“Even things like the decision by Guz [Retallick] to take the points to go from seven to 10 was a really good decision too, and it just kept building a bit of scoreboard pressure and just enabled us to keep building some blocks after that.”

With 62 percent possession, 72 percent territory, 582 more running metres, 20 more defenders and 12 more clean breaks beaten than Los Pumas, the dominance of the All Blacks was reflected in their comprehensive scoreline.

However, while their attacking superiority was evident, Foster was more pleased with his team’s defensive solidity.

Despite making almost half the number of tackles that Argentina made, the All Blacks managed to keep Los Pumas scoreless for the second successive time, and Foster said that illustrated New Zealand’s mindset towards the defensive side of their game.

“I think our defence looked really strong. I thought at set piece time we gave them a lot of poor-quality ball and our defence was strong and aggressive at times,” he said.

“It wasn’t perfect, but I think we imposed ourselves and I did feel quite safe watching them have the ball and it felt we were pretty secure, so we’re making some good steps in that space.

“I think the key is we’re actually enjoying the defence side of it at the moment.”

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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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