All Blacks great Frank Bunce has taken a swing at New Zealand Rugby - albeit after some inspiration from 1News Sports reporter Guy Heveldt - over the treatment of Ian Foster amid their current coaching saga.
Bunce and Heveldt appeared on Breakfast this morning as a panel to discuss the All Blacks coach appointment process after NZR announced yesterday they planned to finalise their decision in the next six weeks; a statement that was then overshadowed by Foster revealing he won't be re-applying.
Bunce said it was another unneeded, challenging chapter in Foster's time in the job.
"I think it could have been done much better," Bunce told Breakfast.
"It's been a bit of a muck-up from the beginning, to be honest, and I do feel a little bit for Fozzy having to go through this in the lead up; he's been through a really difficult time and if you look back on a lot of All Blacks coaches and eras - he's had one of the most difficult.
"He had to go through Covid, he had to go through a whole lot of things. He had the public turn on him... and I think NZR over the course of the last two or three years, I don't think they've handled it that well."
Breakfast host Jenny May-Clarkson teased Bunce was being "quite polite" with his review of NZR before letting Heveldt speak more frankly on the saga.
"I haven't seen someone hung out to dry like this in New Zealand sport since Ross Taylor around the Black Caps captaincy around a decade ago now," Heveldt said.
"Ian Foster was retained as the All Blacks coach unanimously they say by the board in August or September last year, they backed him 100 per cent, he sat in front of a press conference, answered all of the questions and they said he is their guy.
"Now we get to this time in the past four weeks or so and it is clear that something is brewing behind the scenes and this whole time, New Zealand Rugby has not fronted.
"Scott Robertson fronted and said what he said, fair enough; Ian Foster had to come out and went on the front foot because no one from New Zealand Rugby was backing him.
"I think it has been handled really badly."
Heveldt's comments seem to strike a chord with Bunce who conceded he had been polite with his first take and was in agreement with what had been said.
"It's been terrible," Bunce said.
"You sit there as an ex-player and you listen to things and you think, 'jeez'."
Bunce added he knew Foster would shrug off the distraction but it still "isn't good".
"I've never been coached by him, obviously, but I played with him in the Chiefs and he knows the game, he's a real leader and I had a lot of faith in him as an All Blacks coach because I knew him as a player and a person.
"I don't think he really deserved this."
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