All Blacks head coach reveals the 'most annoying people on the team'

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has revealed the most annoying rugby position in the sport, branding props as ‘special people’ who need extra management.

New Zealand have the small matter of playing hosts France in the opening game of the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Stade de France tonight, but “Fossie” allowed himself the luxury of reflecting on the most high-maintenance players in the sport at a press conference in Saint-Denis on Thursday.

Foster – himself a former flyhalf – didn’t pull his punches.

“Props are the most annoying people on the team, they eat the most food, they take the longest to get up. But they are special people… they are looking forward to strutting their stuff.”

On matters of slightly more import, Foster denied that his side have a point to prove after shipping a record 35-7 in their recent warm-up match with the Springboks in Twickenham two weekends ago.

“I don’t think we have a point to prove in relation to that game. We are always disappointed, we don’t like losing, particularly with the injuries and the cards that caused it to be a very disruptive performance. But it hasn’t altered our trajectory.

“It was a game stuck in the middle of a break for us. It really doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is what we learnt from it. But we always have a point to prove, we can’t hide from that. It’s a very big stage tomorrow, we are a very proud team. We want to play well and we are determined to. We will assess after that and see how we progress in this tournament.

If anything, Foster believes it is Fabien Gatlhie’s France who face the real pressure: “There’s no doubt there’s lot of pressure on them, being the hosts. How they respond to that, I’m not sure. The only thing we can control is to make sure we pressure them and play our game, and not get caught up in the emotion of the crowd. It’s no stranger to us, expectation. If we win, we always have that massive expectation to go and do it again. If we lose badly, we have got to deal with all that expectation.

“We have prepared well for how we deal with pressure, but this particular group has got to grow under World Cup pressure, and it is different. We’re proud of the way the guys have gone about their work. We had some clear goals and we’ve ticked off most of those. Now we are ready to go. We want to walk out on to the park with shiny eyes, nice and light, and ready to play. We have been waiting for it. Once the ref blows his whistle, let’s see what happens.”