Report: Ian Foster joins Sir Steve Hansen in Japan Rugby League One

Former All Blacks coach Ian Foster has reportedly signed a deal that would see him join the wealth of former international coaches in Japan’s Rugby League One after departing the All Blacks in 2023.

Foster led the New Zealand side to the Rugby World Cup final after a tumultuous head coaching tenure, but had previously opted not to reapply for the role after friction with New Zealand Rugby.

Since then, the coach’s next step has been shrouded in mystery.

On Tuesday afternoon, New Zealand publication The Herald reported that Foster is in line to join Toyota Verblitz in League One, a move that would see him rejoin fellow former All Blacks head honcho Sir Steve Hansen, who occupies the Director of Rugby role at the club.

Along with the coaching maestro, Foster would be joining a roster that includes some familiar faces.

All Blacks Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett are currently in the Toyota squad, although the latter is set to return to Super Rugby Pacific in 2025. Tom Robinson, formerly of the Blues and recent Highlanders lock Josh Dickson are also with the club along with current Rugby World Cup winners Pieter-Steph du Toit and Willie le Roux.

Foster was adamant he should wait until after he had concluded his time with the All Blacks to entertain any coaching offers, leaving him to enter unemployment during a down period across the world’s coaching landscape.

Now as the League One season nears its end and Toyota find themselves treading water with a 50 per cent winning record, it appears the club has swooped on the accomplished free agent.

Foster would be coaching against the likes of familiar friends and foes in Dave Rennie, Robbie Deans and Todd Blackadder in League One and be performing under the watchful eye of new Brave Blossoms coach Eddie Jones.

The reported signing comes after Foster confirmed he had put pen to paper on an undisclosed new deal last week in an interview with The Platform, and some months after he last commented on his future publicly.

“I’ve got lots of ideas but first I’m going to mow my lawns,” Foster said when queried on his plans while in France at the World Cup. “I will be coaching though, by the way.

“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 Blacks head coach that they knew was 100 per cent 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.”