They may have the same uneasy taste in their mouth after the draw in the first Bledisloe Cup encounter, but the opposing coaches differed in their assessments of their teams’ inability, or indifference, to try a dropped goal.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster and his Wallabies counterpart Dave Rennie were both coaching their first Tests as their sides battled it out for 87 minutes before settling for a 16-all draw.
Both were asked why their teams hadn’t opted for a dropped goal, with both the All Blacks and Wallabies having camped on the opposition line for a period in injury time.
Foster defended the decision of his players to shift the ball wide while Rennie was more blunt in his assessment, calling it an “opportunity lost” for the Wallabies.
“Yeah well, we had a number of opinions in the box, but no we were well set up I thought we calmed ourselves down, we were well set up under the posts for either the drop kick,” Foster said.
“I think you’ll see Richie (Mo’unga) was hovering around in that position but you know Jordie called the ball and was actually a pretty solid decision in its own because I think George Bridge was pretty well unmarked out the side.”
“Again that’s a skill execution, we couldn’t quite get the ball out where it needed to be.”
Rennie, maybe as a result of some Northern Hemisphere pragmatism after his stint coaching in Glasgow, on the other hand wasn’t sure what had happened on the field.
“We practised it during the week, James O’Connor dropped back in the boot, I’m not sure what happened there around communication but we ended up going a little bit wider than that and turned it over.”
“Opportunity lost obviously.”
All Blacks captain Sam Cane added the team didn't really have time to discuss such a play.
"There wasn't much stoppage to have a chat - it was pretty all go that last, what felt like, 70 minutes," Cane said.
"We were aiming to get a penalty there... so short answer, no (dropped goal)."
"It just highlights Test match footy is about taking opportunities and there might only be a couple in a game."
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