How Joe Schmidt and a few veteran All Blacks saved Foster's job
The pleas of a handful of experienced All Blacks combined with the appointment of Joe Schmidt to his coaching staff possibly saved Ian Foster’s job according to rugby writer Gregor Paul.
Speaking on Off The Ball‘s radio show, Paul shared details of the behind-the-scenes happenings that resulted in New Zealand Rugby changing their minds after the stunning Ellis Park win.
“All signs, evidence and journalistic endeavours was leading us to believe that pre-Ellis Park test match that the decision had already been made,” Paul told Off The Ball.
“He was going to be moved on, they were going to make a change at head coach. Then unbelievably they win at Ellis Park, all of a sudden here we are, they’ve changed their minds and Ian Foster’s the coach.
“Quite surprising, didn’t think that was going to happen.”
The surprise win resulted in a farcical press conference the day after from CEO Mark Robinson, who fronted the media with nothing to confirm around Ian Foster’s position within the role.
They announced that the head coach would undergo his third review on returning home from South Africa and New Zealand Rugby began its investigation.
The New Zealand Herald and RugbyPass+ columnist detailed that a handful of veteran players told Robinson he couldn’t ‘fire this guy’ with the backing of the leadership group.
“I think there have been a couple of really critical factors to persuade the Board to stick with Ian Foster as head coach,” Paul said.
“One would be, after the game a handful of senior players, here I’m talking Sam Whitelock, Sam Cane, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, looked the Chief Exec down the barrel kind of thing and said ‘you can’t fire this guy, we’ve got all the belief in the world he’s the right guy’.
“That was really compelling story that they told. They said please keep him.”
The second factor was convincing former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt to join his coaching ticket as an attack coach.
Schmidt was previously reluctant to become heavily involved but the commitment of the mastermind convinced the Board that the coaching team is strong enough to retain through to the World Cup.
“And then when Ian Foster himself met with the board, he was able to tell them that he had persuaded Joe Schmidt, who I think has been a little bit reluctant to jump in with both feet and get into a hands-on training ground role.
“He was really resistant that he didn’t want to do it, but since the All Blacks got back from South Africa, Fozzy was able to say ‘look mate I really need you to be my attack coach, I need you to commit, I need you to jump on board and be with us’.
“Once he got Joe to do that, that was probably the critical factor that persuaded the Board.
“The whole make-up of the coaching team changed at that point, all of a sudden they had another guy that’s been a ‘head coach’ of a very good international team.
“That was the critical factor to make them think ‘actually, let’s see how this plays out’ because they’ve got a lot of faith in Joe being able to add something pretty dynamic to the attack game at the moment.”
After the run of results that the All Blacks were on, the appointment of someone with Schmidt’s experience was a ‘huge’ factor in building confidence in Foster’s group.
After previous assistant Brad Mooar was let go, Foster had taken over the team’s attack but Paul theorised that Schmidt’s hands were all over the Ellis Park turnaround after breaking down the tape from Mbombela.
“I think that has been a huge part of building confidence [in Foster],” Paul said.
“If we look at the evidence here, the All Blacks were sitting on five losses from their last six test matches prior to Ellis Park.
“They weren’t playing particularly well, in fact they were playing very poorly. They didn’t look like they knew what they were doing, they were lacking cohesion.
“They didn’t look like they were going to win the last two tests against Ireland, we all know they didn’t look like they were in those games. They went to play in Mbombela, didn’t ever look like they were going to win that game.
“Clearly everything is broken here, nothing is working out.
“Officially, Ian Foster was the attack coach [for Ellis Park], but I have a pretty strong suspicion that a lot of what we saw was Joe Schmidt from afar.
“His ability to analyse the opposition, see what they are doing, and then create a game plan that is pretty strongly predictive on what they are going to encounter, really cleverly built, based on what he’s seen.
“Where they were poor in Mbombela, they were really strong at Ellis Park. So they looked at what South Africa did, they broke it down, they analysed it, and they responded.
“I’ve got a feeling that Joe played a pretty big hand.”
Comments on RugbyPass
What a dagg in more ways than one
5 Go to commentsRegroup come back next year but sack some of the coaching team and don't be like the ABs last minute sacking. If Crusaders don't do well ABs don't do well.
5 Go to commentsProctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
5 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
5 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
4 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
38 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to comments