Under-fire head coach Ian Foster says no one within the All Blacks is "panicking" despite the recent upheaval in his coaching team as he once again avoided the question of whether he will resign if losses continue to pile up.
Speaking to the media during the All Blacks’ training camp on Tuesday in Wellington before they travel to South Africa for two Tests against the world champions, Foster showed the same defiance he displayed last Friday following the Irish series defeat.
Since then, All Blacks assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar have been sacked, with Jason Ryan brought into coach the forwards and Foster himself filling in for Mooar’s attack role.
The players have held their own meetings, with the coaches, who are left adamant they can turn this team around. (Source: 1News)
Ryan spoke with clarity about what needs to change within the pack – starting with a better maul defence and improving the contact area – but Foster showed glimpses of the siege mentality the All Blacks may require in South Africa.
Foster, asked whether the key to making improvements was to avoid panicking, replied: "We’re not panicking - I’m not sure about the rest of the people."
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It's not clear whether he was referring to the media, the New Zealand public or indeed those on the NZ Rugby board looking for answers as to why the All Blacks have been performing so poorly in losing four of their last five Tests.
They are now in a state of flux ahead of their South African tour, with two home Tests against Argentina and home and away Tests against the Wallabies to follow.
But after overseeing a training session at Sky Stadium, Foster maintained his side are travelling in the right direction.
Asked if it would be untenable for him to stay if the All Blacks performed poorly in the Rugby Championship, starting against the Boks on August 7 (NZT), and lost the Bledisloe Cup to Australia for the first time in 20 years – Foster said: "That’s not something I think about. I think about my role."
He maintained potentially resigning was not in his thinking.
"Like I said, I don’t think about that. My job is to get excited about taking a team to South Africa."
First-five Richie Mo’unga, who played a bench role behind Beauden Barrett over the three Tests against Ireland, said the All Blacks were "looking in the mirror" after the series defeat but stated Foster was the right man for the top job.
"We had to address where we are as a team and the current situation and work out what’s best the priorities for the coming tests against South Africa," Mo’unga said. "We’re looking in the mirror. Our performances were not good enough."
He said the All Blacks were looking forward to turning things around.
"To have a lot of people say what they’ve said about our team, to question us as All Blacks and just really to prove them wrong. And not only that, but to prove to each other what we’re capable of and who we are as All Blacks.
"Fozzie’s the man for the job. I 100% back Fozzie for his coaching ability and I think now he’ll have a more hands-on role with the backs and with the attack. I’ve had a taste of that during my early All Blacks career and I was able to gain so much knowledge and had ‘wow’ moments on the field when he was coaching."
It has been said that Plumtree and Mooar were not reviewed favourably by the players last year, but had their contracts extended by the New Zealand Rugby board regardless for another two years before their recent dismissals.
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"I think that might be a little bit more media chat and speculation rather than factual," Foster said. "We always review hard… and particularly when we had a year like we had; on tour for three and a half months, locked in hotels - it was a very unique tour so how you review that was a little bit different."
Asked whether the NZ Rugby board had made demands, Foster said: "No they haven’t but I don’t need them to tell me what we want to do. We want to play well. With all the emotion around when you lose a series it’s easy for people to get scratchy and poke holes and I get that and accept all that but it doesn’t change our job which is to play well."
With Foster and NZ Rugby saying Foster covering as attack coach is only temporary, the door remains open for Blues head coach Leon MacDonald to join the All Blacks.
Asked whether he was considering MacDonald, Foster replied: "We’re pretty happy with where we are at right now and we’ll keep progressing forward."
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