‘What we’ve learned’: What the All Blacks need to do to win the Rugby World Cup

With this year’s Rugby World Cup just around the corner, coach Ian Foster has spoken about what lessons the All Blacks have learned over the last four years.

As the countdown to this year’s tournament in France continues to tick by, the stage has already been set ahead of what promises to be the most competitive Rugby World Cup yet.

The All Blacks are not considered to be the favourites for this year’s event, instead, northern hemisphere heavyweights France and Ireland will carry the responsibility of that label.

Last year, New Zealand started their international campaign with an historic series loss at home against Ireland – and things went from bad to worse in The Rugby Championship.

Losses to world champions South Africa, and a first-ever loss to Argentina in New Zealand followed, which continued to pile the pressure on All Blacks coach Ian Foster.

To put it simply, the All Blacks just didn’t look like themselves throughout the first half of 2022.

While they were able to turn a corner in the back half of the year, and ended up winning the TRC, there are still questions that remain answered about this team.

But any scrutiny, criticism or doubt while either be proved true or silenced at this year’s World Cup.

Coach Ian Foster has revealed what the All Blacks have to do in order to win this year’s Rugby World Cup.

“We’ve got to make sure that we really continue the growth on the key areas that other teams like to go to, to accumulate points,” Foster said on Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.

“What we’ve learned the last three or four years, what we know is if you enable people to come at you through the set-piece, through driving plays… then it’s long night in the office.

“We need to look at how we stay focus and calm when we’re actually playing well.

“I know that sounds a bit strange but last year one of our biggest weaknesses was when we were leading by 10 or 15 points… teams start to come back at us, we just had little periods of games where we just lost our way.

“Really demanding that 100 per cent concentration right through a game. There’s a couple of little points.”

France are widely considered to be the favourites ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup on home soil.

Les Bleus have been the world’s form team for quite some time now, although they were bested by Ireland in the Six Nations earlier in 2023.

The All Blacks will take on France in the tournament’s opening match in September – playing in front of a crowd who “will want to see us trip up.”

“World Cups are very unique,” Foster added. “We’re going down to a World Cup and a country with a foreign language and where the host nation is probably the favourite.

“We’re not gonna be going into a warm fuzzy environment where everyone loves us and wants to be around the All Blacks, we’re going around a country that actually will want to see us trip up and not play well.

“I think how we embrace and get excited about that challenge is going to be big for us.”