All Blacks coach Ian Foster has come out in defence of Rieko Ioane after the midfielder's basic handling error cost his side a certain try in this afternoon's Bledisloe Cup draw.
Ioane looked destined to score a counterattacking try for the All Blacks at halftime after he was handed the ball 20 metres from the Wallabies line with no defenders in sight - but the Blues star failed to ground the ball as he dove in one-handed.
As a result, the All Blacks went to the sheds only leading 8-3, eventually drawing the Test with the Wallabies 16-16.
"It would've been useful," Foster admitted.
"He's feeling pretty frustrated with himself but that's one of those little lessons players have to go through and I thought he had a reasonably strong game besides that.
"That's why they call it a Test match - you've got to take those little moments and when you get a little bit sloppy in those moments, it can come back and bite you."
Foster was asked if he thought Ioane's error cost them the game but he responded, "not at all".
"We had a chance to win the game in the last 10 minutes and we weren't good enough to execute on it," Foster said.
"You don't dwell on errors in Test matches - there were a lot of errors before that and there were a lot of errors after that.
"It certainly would've been nice but it's not the reason we drew."
Foster said he expects Ioane to bounce back easily enough.
"You make an error, you move on. He's confident young man but he's got to learn from that one little thing."
SHARE ME