'We don't pick our team on race': Foster defends team selection
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has defended his team’s lineup to face Fiji this week after being asked whether the Fijian heritage of some of his players led to their selection for Saturday’s test in Dunedin.
Foster has made sweeping changes to his side to face the Flying Fijians at Forsyth Barr Stadium this weekend, with only George Bridge and Rieko Ioane the sole survivors in the starting team that thumped Tonga 102-0 in Auckland last week.
A further six changes have been made on the bench as the All Blacks selectors hold true on their promise to provide their entire squad with opportunities to impress ahead of next month’s Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup series.
Many storylines have been thrown up in the wake of Foster’s wholesale alterations: Aaron Smith will make his All Blacks captaincy debut, Beauden Barrett starts at first-five for the first time in two years and Brodie Retallick will play in his first test since 2019.
Another storyline raised at Thursday’s team naming press conference was whether the Fijian heritage of three All Blacks players – Sevu Reece, Hoskins Sotutu and George Bower – played a role in their inclusion in New Zealand’s starting XV.
Foster didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that he picked those players on the basis of their race, though, as he took aim at unspecified media outlets for highlighting the exclusion of some Tongan players in last week’s thrashing of ‘Ikale Tahi.
“Not at all,” he said when asked if Reece, Sotutu and Bower were named in this week’s team due to their Fijian backgrounds.
“In fact, I was pretty disappointed with a couple of articles last week that poked at us for not picking our Tongans to play Tonga, and I thought, ‘Well, we don’t pick our team on race. We pick our team on what’s best for the All Blacks’. So, the answer is no.”
Foster’s comments come days after Reece, who was born and raised in Fiji until he moved to New Zealand as a schoolboy in 2014, described the chance to play against his homeland as “a dream come true”.
“It’s going to be almost a dream come true if I get the opportunity to play on Saturday and play against some very close mates of mine that I grew up playing with,” Reece, who will start on the right wing this weekend, said on Tuesday.
Sotutu also has close ties to the Pacific Island nation, with his father, Waisake, playing 12 tests for Fiji in 1999, while Bower was born in Wellington to Fijian parents and rejected the chance to represent Fiji at the 2019 World Cup.
After having made his test debut last week, Bower will be superseded as the newest All Blacks prop by Highlanders youngster Ethan de Groot, who will make his test debut from the bench on Saturday.
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The 22-year-old Southland product was in outstanding form throughout Super Rugby and is primed for his first international appearance in front of a large contingent of friends and family from his hometown of Gore.
“There’ll be a few people coming up I’d say,” De Groot said on Thursday. “I found out on Tuesday [that I’d be playing] so I rang my parents.
“My old man’s in Australia at the moment, he left a couple of days after the team got named, but they’re just super proud. Mum’s coming up, so it’ll be cool.”
De Groot added he expects his Highlanders teammate Smith to carry on from where he left off in Super Rugby as he takes the field as All Blacks captain for the first time in his career.
“I think he’ll be more like the same, just chirpy as, heaps of energy on the field. I think he’ll be good for it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
In the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getitng to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
5 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
6 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
5 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
6 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
54 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 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.
54 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.
6 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
54 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 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
54 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.
54 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.
18 Go to comments