Rotation on the cards in 2020 as Ian Foster prepares to select mammoth squad
Ian Foster talks All Blacks squad rotation, player welfare, MItre 10 Cup and the reports the media has wrong.
Full scale rotation will be back in vogue for the Rugby Championship with All Blacks coach Ian Foster confirming plans to take an enlarged squad to Australia where he will chop and change his starting team on a weekly basis to counter short turnarounds.
Foster is set to add 10 or 11 players to his original 35-man squad in the coming weeks after Australia secured the Rugby Championship hosting rights.
While the original squad will be used for the first two Bledisloe Cup matches in New Zealand next month, additional cover is needed in Australia due to the complexities involved with replacing injured players when two weeks quarantine is required.
The Rugby Championship is set to be staged in a condensed window, with the tournament starting on November 7 and finishing in the first weekend of December to avoid the All Blacks, Springboks and Pumas having to quarantine through Christmas on their return home.
“From a player welfare set up I don’t think we can delay the naming of the extra players too close to departure because people are going to need the time to get organised for that nine-week stint,” Foster said. “We’re going to let the next week or two go but we’ll name those players with enough time to get their personal stuff in line and come away with a lot of energy.”
Foster admitted managing an increased squad and changing combinations every week will create headaches but it is also a chance to build depth.
“They’re going to be significant but not insurmountable. We’ve got an experienced leadership group and management – they’re challenges we have to deal with one at a time and not get overwhelmed by them.
“We’re going to have re-think how we do some things as an All Black. Some traditional things might have to change. We’ve got a mantra that everyone prepares to play every test. You can’t do that with 45 or 46 players.
“We’re going to have to be rotating, bring back that word. We’re obviously going to have to change players in and out significantly. When you’ve got four or five day turnarounds between some tests you’d like to think the four props you use in one test won’t be the four props you use in the next test.”
The spinoffs of the Rugby Championship being based in Australia, and the All Blacks taking additional players there, will strip the Mitre 10 Cup competition of its top-tier talent.
All Blacks will turn out for their respective unions again this weekend, and individuals not needed for Bledisloe tests will filter back, but that will come to an end once the team departs New Zealand shores.
After a successful trial during Super Rugby Aotearoa, afternoon rugby is again making a return in NZ. #AllBlacks @AllBlackshttps://t.co/uO8vpNB7h7
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 15, 2020
“I don’t necessarily agree that we’re going to decimate it. We were always going to take 35 players and the competition never normally has those players in it. Is it going to change the nature of it? Of course it is. That’s what happens when the international game is played at the same time as the Mitre 10 Cup.
“If the Bledisloe Cup dates are what we’re talking about now [October 10/11 and 17/18] I’d say the blanket availability of All Blacks for the Mitre 10 Cup from round three onwards will be gone, but there will still be some individual players that will pop back and play.”
Foster is confident he will take a largely full-strength squad to Australia, despite concerns raised around the possibility of some players pulling out for family reasons. He took aim at a report from Radio New Zealand which suggested new or expecting fathers Beauden Barrett, Richie Mo’unga, TJ Perenara and Sevu Reece had opted out of the tournament.
“The way it was reported was not correct. Are players talking about the issues? Yes they are. We’re like everyone we’re learning things as we go along. We now know we’ve got a nine week stint in Australia that involves us coming out of quarantine on December 19.
“Now we get more information we’re talking to the players one by one and assessing their situations. Every player is going to be slightly different but I haven’t heard from any player at all that they’re not coming. What I’ve heard from some players is they’ve got some questions. That’s a completely different thing and purely natural.
“It’s massively tricky but there’s also a reality of being a professional sportsperson too. It’s balancing the family side. Last year we went to the World Cup for seven weeks. This year we’ve got to go to Aussie and play a Rugby Championship for seven weeks then you’ve got two weeks quarantining on the end.
“We all know it’s not ideal and it’s an imperfect world we live in but they are the cards we’ve been dealt.”
The 35-man All Blacks squad – Another 10-11 players will be added:
Asafo Aumua, Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, George Bridge, Sam Cane, Caleb Clarke, Dane Coles, Braydon Ennor, Shannon Frizell, Jack Goodhue, Cullen Grace, Alex Hodgman, Akira Ioane, Rieko Ioane, Will Jordan, Nepo Laulala, Anton Lienert-Brown, Tyrel Lomax, Damian McKenzie, Joe Moody, Richie Mo’unga, Dalton Papalii, TJ Perenara, Sevu Reece, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, Hoskins Sotutu, Quinten Strange, Codie Taylor, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Patrick Tuipulotu, Ofa Tuungafasi, Tupou Vaa’i, Brad Weber, Sam Whitelock
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
9 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to comments