‘It would mean a lot’: Coach Foster on the All Blacks’ 'goal' of World Cup glory

The All Blacks are always among the favourites whenever there’s a Rugby World Cup. They’re there to win, and anything less is seen as a catastrophic failure in the eyes of fans from a rugby-mad nation.

New Zealand, and the rugby world as a whole, saw a glimpse of what it means to lose big Test matches as an All Black during last year’s disastrous series defeat to Ireland.

After opening their international season with a convincing win over Andy Farrell’s men at Eden Park, the All Blacks fell to back-to-back losses. History was made, and it didn’t come down to the luck of the Irish either.

The All Blacks were beaten, badly too, as they fell to their fourth loss in five Tests. Test veteran Beauden Barrett summed it up perfectly.

“It’s not like someone’s died but it’s probably the next worst thing,” Barrett said on the NZR+ docuseries All Blacks: In Their Own Words. “It’s not easy but it’s not supposed to be either.”

The All Blacks were hurting, and so were New Zealand. It’s a glimpse into the high-performance culture of the world-famous rugby team.

While there’s always pressure on the All Blacks, the bar is raised even higher every four years.

New Zealand rugby fans expect the All Blacks to hoist the Webb Ellis Cup in triumph. Otherwise, as legendary Wallaby George Gregan so famously said, they’ll have to wait “four more years.”

It’s not an easy four years, either. The semi-final defeat to England at the 2019 Rugby World Cup is still a talking point for the All Blacks.

In the leadup to the All Blacks’ highly anticipated clash with the Springboks in London, coach Ian Foster reflected on the All Blacks’ unwavering “goal” to win it all in France.

“It would mean a lot to us to win the World Cup, that’s our goal,” Foster told reporters. “We’re not trying to think much beyond that to be fair.

“We know how tough it’s going to be. For us we’ve got our clear goals, clear objectives. We want to be positioned well going into that first game against France and after that, we’ll just wait and see.

“So many teams are going in to win it, and that’s what we want to achieve.

“For New Zealand Rugby, for the public and everything, it will mean a lot. But there’s a bit of water going under the bridge first.”

The All Blacks play fierce rivals South Africa on Friday night in their final warm-up Test before the Rugby World Cup.

In just over two weeks’ time, the All Blacks will open their World Cup campaign against tournament hosts France in Paris.