Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'We don't pick our team on race': Foster defends team selection

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has defended his team’s lineup to face Fiji this week after being asked whether the Fijian heritage of some of his players led to their selection for Saturday’s test in Dunedin.

ADVERTISEMENT

Foster has made sweeping changes to his side to face the Flying Fijians at Forsyth Barr Stadium this weekend, with only George Bridge and Rieko Ioane the sole survivors in the starting team that thumped Tonga 102-0 in Auckland last week.

A further six changes have been made on the bench as the All Blacks selectors hold true on their promise to provide their entire squad with opportunities to impress ahead of next month’s Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup series.

Video Spacer

Beauden Barrett and Aaron Smith named to start for the All Blacks against Fiji

Video Spacer

Beauden Barrett and Aaron Smith named to start for the All Blacks against Fiji

Many storylines have been thrown up in the wake of Foster’s wholesale alterations: Aaron Smith will make his All Blacks captaincy debut, Beauden Barrett starts at first-five for the first time in two years and Brodie Retallick will play in his first test since 2019.

Another storyline raised at Thursday’s team naming press conference was whether the Fijian heritage of three All Blacks players – Sevu Reece, Hoskins Sotutu and George Bower – played a role in their inclusion in New Zealand’s starting XV.

Foster didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that he picked those players on the basis of their race, though, as he took aim at unspecified media outlets for highlighting the exclusion of some Tongan players in last week’s thrashing of ‘Ikale Tahi.

“Not at all,” he said when asked if Reece, Sotutu and Bower were named in this week’s team due to their Fijian backgrounds.

ADVERTISEMENT

“In fact, I was pretty disappointed with a couple of articles last week that poked at us for not picking our Tongans to play Tonga, and I thought, ‘Well, we don’t pick our team on race. We pick our team on what’s best for the All Blacks’. So, the answer is no.”

Foster’s comments come days after Reece, who was born and raised in Fiji until he moved to New Zealand as a schoolboy in 2014, described the chance to play against his homeland as “a dream come true”.

“It’s going to be almost a dream come true if I get the opportunity to play on Saturday and play against some very close mates of mine that I grew up playing with,” Reece, who will start on the right wing this weekend, said on Tuesday.

Sotutu also has close ties to the Pacific Island nation, with his father, Waisake, playing 12 tests for Fiji in 1999, while Bower was born in Wellington to Fijian parents and rejected the chance to represent Fiji at the 2019 World Cup.

ADVERTISEMENT

After having made his test debut last week, Bower will be superseded as the newest All Blacks prop by Highlanders youngster Ethan de Groot, who will make his test debut from the bench on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Southland product was in outstanding form throughout Super Rugby and is primed for his first international appearance in front of a large contingent of friends and family from his hometown of Gore.

“There’ll be a few people coming up I’d say,” De Groot said on Thursday. “I found out on Tuesday [that I’d be playing] so I rang my parents.

“My old man’s in Australia at the moment, he left a couple of days after the team got named, but they’re just super proud. Mum’s coming up, so it’ll be cool.”

De Groot added he expects his Highlanders teammate Smith to carry on from where he left off in Super Rugby as he takes the field as All Blacks captain for the first time in his career.

“I think he’ll be more like the same, just chirpy as, heaps of energy on the field. I think he’ll be good for it.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

307 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat
Search