An emotional but measured Ian Foster has lifted the lid on his plans now that he is about to be unemployed, saying he would consider coaching against the All Blacks and even raised the possibility he would be open to doing so alongside current assistant Joe Schmidt.
Sitting at a very quiet All Blacks team hotel at the Paris Country Club a day after the chaos, joy and tears of South Africa’s 12-11 World Cup victory at the Stade de France, Foster spoke to a New Zealand media contingent for just over 22 minutes about what comes next for him, and also his views on Sam Cane’s red card and why he feels World Rugby need to work out what they want from a television match official.
That, he said, was the biggest challenge facing the international game today.
The agonisingly close loss to South Africa is a harsh goodbye for Foster, as well as a number of team stalwarts. (Source: 1News)
He spoke about how he would like to be remembered after a tumultuous four years in charge and involvement with the team that began alongside Sir Steve Hansen in 2012.
He reiterated that he thought it was a wrong decision for New Zealand Rugvy to announce that Scott Robertson would take over after the World Cup because it was the wrong thing for the team.
He also refused to offer any advice to Robertson or endorse Cane as captain because he felt it wasn’t his place to do so.
The All Blacks forward told Andrew Saville he was determined to remain positive despite being gutted by the World Cup final loss. (Source: Breakfast)
He revealed what he will miss most about the job, saying: “I’m gonna miss walking up the stairs to the coaches’ box before a Test. There’s something about taking your seat and watching the All Blacks play and, believe it or not, I love that.
“After that it’s the people. Full stop. It’s seeing young men grow and be put under the same pressure that I get put under and learning how to deal with that.”
A priority remains mowing the lawns at home. Beyond that it’s clear he has received coaching offers but he said it was a conscious decision to refuse to engage with them until after the World Cup.
“I disagreed with how this year went,” he said regarding the drama surrounding his role. “I said that publicly. I disagreed with the decisions that New Zealand Rugby made on the basis that what I felt was the best thing for this team. It wasn’t based on my desire to coach beyond this World Cup.
“I stand by that. Even my players last night and today are telling me ‘well now you can tell me what you’ve got planned, Ian’, and I said when I made that decision in March to speak out, I also made a decision to refuse to talk to anyone about my plans.
“Any time I got offered any opportunity to coach after the World Cup I said I wasn’t interested until after the World Cup to talk about it. I felt the team deserved to have an All Black head coach that they knew was 100% committed to this team right now.
“There are no secret plans. It may be my stubborn pride but I … didn’t want them reading that I was talking to someone else… because I don’t think that’s conducive to a team environment. Technically I’ll get home and on the 1st of November be unemployed.”
Foster was told: “It sounds like Eddie [Jones] might have resigned [from the Wallabies]."
He replied: “I don’t want to get caught up in that saga. But funnily enough, I made a decision not to talk to an international team for that very reason because I didn’t think it looks good.”
Would it be tough to coach against the All Blacks? “Yep”.
Would that not be a different and potentially exciting, though?
“I don’t know. You guys know me, I don’t go around telling everyone what I’m doing or thinking.
“I’ll figure things out. There might be nothing. The inbox might be empty on Wednesday or Thursday.”
An engaged and thoughtful Foster was less flippant when talking about the impact Cane’s first-half red card had on his clearly upset skipper.
“He was devastated last night – you would have picked that up,” he replied. “From a personal side, he’s got a team that treasure him and so they’ve surrounded him. He’ll continue to lead that group… but there’s no short cuts to getting over that.
“We’ve just got to let him know that it is what it is – that’s the game. And in spite of that he knows that we still gave ourselves a chance.”
Asked whether Cane’s response that the red card would be something he would have to live with for ever could change over time, Foster said: “Probably today is not the right day to try to convince him of that. It’s fair to talk to him about that but he’ll be sitting around at a barbeque and someone will ask him what it was like in six months’ time.
“There will be references to this final and his name will get attached to it. People won’t look beyond that… they’ll see that fact. But I love him – the involvement with the team has been fantastic and it doesn’t change anything in my eyes or the players’ eyes. We know that’s the nature of the game and we saw some fine lines last night in that area. He was on the wrong side of it.”
Fine lines all right, and Richie Mo'unga and Jordie Barrett were said to be nearly inconsolable after missing their goalkicks.
Foster decried the criticism and inevitable abuse copped by referee Wayne Barnes, saying: “We’ve got to have perspective about this. It’s a tough game to referee. There’s a lot of pressure on. Wayne’s a quality person and has been a quality referee for a long time. I didn’t agree with a number of his decisions last but that doesn’t change the fact he’s a quality person and referee.”
1News' Andrew Saville spoke to the All Blacks great the day after the World Cup final. (Source: Breakfast)
But he rightly pointed out that issues remain, Foster bringing up Ardie Savea’s legal turnover for which he was penalised by Barnes, with Handre Pollard kicking three points after the official apologised to the All Blacks stand-in skipper after watching the replay and conceding he got it wrong.
There was no correction, though, unlike when TMO Tom Foley interjected and ruled out Aaron Smith’s try for what Foster admitted was a knock-on by Savea in a previous lineout.
“I don’t think we should blame Wayne Barnes for that, but the game’s got an issue where it seems to come down to which decisions they feel they want to correct. That’s the sad part of it. The good thing is it’s nothing to do with Wayne Barnes and it’s got nothing to do with our respect for South Africa.”
“It’s giving space for people to fill with theories and conspiracies.”
Foley’s eagle eyes also failed to see Eben Etzebeth lead with a forearm into prop Ethan de Groot’s face. “Again, that’s another situation where the game gets clouded,” Foster said.
He disagreed that Siya Kolisi’s head-on-head contact with Savea was a red card, adding: “But nor do I think Sam should have been red carded because I don’t think there was the force that they said was put into it.”
Cane, Foster said, had a split second and half a metre to react whereas Kolisi charged in from 10 metres and the sanction for the first was far harsher than the second.
Foster, like most Southern Hemisphere coaches, are adamant World Rugby needs to bring in the 20-minute red card scenario currently used in Super Rugby to make the sanctions more equitable.
A pitch to change it at Test level was effectively blocked by Northern Hemisphere unions several years ago.
Last year’s women’s World Cup final won in dramatic fashion by the Black Ferns against England at Eden Park was also marred by a red card – to England wing Lydia Thompson for a high tackle.
“A red card with 10 minutes to go is very different to a red card with 60 minutes to go,” Foster said. “The impact on the game is different, the punishment is different. Quite frankly the Southern Hemisphere’s plea with World Rugby to make a red card a 20-minute thing needs to be listened to straight away. It has to be… I just can’t see any logic about why it wouldn’t be brought in.”
Time is nearly up.
Foster refused to say whether he felt he left the All Blacks in a better place, saying that was a question for others.
He laughed when asked how he would like to be remembered, saying, "it sounds like I'm dead", but added: “If I get remembered from within the group as someone who cared and united this group then I’ll take that.”
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