'What are we going to gain if we change?': Ian Foster talks All Blacks selections

Despite sitting on four straight losses heading into this weekend’s clash with the Springboks, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has resisted making sweeping changes to the line-up that’s been largely utilised throughout the season to date.

Three of the four changes made for Saturday’s fixture are significant, however, with Foster swapping out his starting props and also dropping Beauden Barrett to the bench with Richie Mo’unga taking his spot in the No 10 jersey.

Shannon Frizell’s elevation to the blindside flanker role in place of Akira Ioane rounds out the changes to the starting line-up, with uncapped 22-year-old tighthead Fletcher Newell also joining the bench for a potential Test debut and Codie Taylor taking over from Dane Coles as the reserve hooker.

“As a group of selectors, with Joe and I and then the coaches, we went through the same process we’d normally do at selection time,” Foster told media on Thursday after naming his squad.

“We felt both Tyrel and Ethan are in a really good position. I think, particularly Ethan coming in, it’s a great opportunity for him to switch from that bench (role). [He’s] a strong scrummager and so excited about that.

 

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“Shannon, I thought, having his experience but also he looked rearing to go off the bench.

“Richie’s trained really, really well and contributed massively behind the scenes. Particularly, just a chance to swap those two [him and Barrett] around. They were the ones that we went with. Did we consider others? Of course we did. But that’s where we got to.”

Foster later added: “Clearly we’ve made some changes the last few weeks. I think we’ve been working really, really hard to bed those in and so when we look at the squad, we haven’t made wholesale changes but we’ve certainly made some pretty critical ones, we think, to add energy.

“There’s a lot of people who aren’t playing that you could argue deserve a right to play because they’ve been training hard, preparing well but it hasn’t been a start of the year that’s [allows for the team to] rotate a lot. It’s about growing the experience and that’s what we’re doing.”

Despite Will Jordan, Beauden Barrett and Jordie Barrett all finding themselves in the wars over the past week, all three will suit up on Saturday, with Jordan and Jordie Barrett holding their spots in the outside backs from last Saturday’s 26-10 defeat.

“[They’re] all good to go,” said Foster. “Will’s been whacked by a bit of a stomach bug so he hasn’t trained much but he’s done a lot of work behind the scenes.

“He’ll get through a significant part of training today and we’ll just keep putting stuff in his mouth to get his energy right. He’s looking good.”

Although midfielders David Havili and Rieko Ioane struggled to assert themselves against the Springboks, Foster has retained that combo for Saturday and suggested that they will benefit from their tough run of games.

“I think sometimes you weigh up selection – you’ve got to look at ‘What are we going to gain if we change?’ Clearly we’ve got two midfielders at home in Anton [Lienert-Brown] and Jack [Goodhue] so we really believe this is a time for growing experience in this particular group,” said Foster.

“You tread that line at selection time: do you make wholesale changes or take the lessons from it? I’ve said that this group is still evolving. These experiences are actually gold for us. We don’t like not winning but the reality is we’re getting some clear markers against a very good team and I just trust the lessons that we take and put the onus back on us as a group to make sure that we accept those lessons, learn them and keep growing our awareness of the game. That’s what we’re banking on.”

Mo’unga, who looked sharp off the bench against the Springboks in Mbombela but while Foster asserted that the All Balcks need to up their kicking game at Ellis Park, that’s not behind the swap at first five-eighth.

“Like I said, he’s prepared well, trained well. Him and Beaudy have been massive behind the scenes anyway in terms of really working hard on the things that we want to achieve. I’m sure he’ll bring his own little flavour to it. It’s a matter of getting the balance between our kick, pass, run – we know that.

“Clearly last week we didn’t get any field position early and that really dampened us so we’ve just got to make sure we get some of that early against a team that kicks out of that space really well.”

Saturday’s match is due to kick off at 5:05pm SAST from Johannesburg.