ON THE BALL: If the All Blacks fail at the World Cup, you, Mark Robinson, will be remembered as the guy who stuck to Ian Foster, argues Lucky Maree.
“Warning! South Africa play Ireland in Dublin on the same day the All Blacks play Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. However, there has been no official confirmation that during the All Blacks match, the Springbok match will be shown on the big screen.”
Of course social media is having a field day at the expense of the All Blacks who are going through the worst slump in the history of New Zealand Rugby.
Even Nick Mallett has confidently predicted that the All Blacks won’t be a match for the Springboks when they play South Africa in Mbombela and Johannesburg.
But Mallett, an astute student of the game by anybody’s reckoning, has been wrong before and – to his credit – has always admitted when he is wrong. But he may just have to eat his words.
The reality is that the All Blacks are really not at their best at the moment and right now, the blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of Ian Foster – but Foster keeps his job as forwards coach John Plumtree and attack coach Brad Mooar get fired. Jason Ryan from the Crusaders has been brought in as forwards coach.
A South African rugby fan comments: “Please don’t fire Foster! He is South Africa’s greatest asset!”
New Zealand Rugby CEO, Mark Robinson publicly humiliated the current All Blacks team when he tweeted: “Clearly the performance across the series for the All Blacks was not acceptable. We all know there is a huge amount of work to do.”
But there is something about senior rugby managers around the world. Why do they become so pompous and so arrogant?
In South Africa we have the example of Rassie Erasmus who had his nose rubbed into the turf for daring to criticise a ref. The punishment was so severe that coaches around the world are always very careful when they speak about on-field decisions.
Robinson claims they have a lot of work to do, but why don’t they answer the basic questions first?
Mister Robinson, who appointed Ian Foster, a man with a known mediocre record, after the World Cup in 2019?
Six months ago (at least) the warning sighs were there. There was a conference with Foster because things were going wrong. Why did nothing happen at the time?
Why is Foster coming to South Africa, and why, by all accounts will he go to the World Cup as coach?
On the New Zealand rugby programme, The Breakdown, Jeff Wilson and John Kirwin were scathing about New Zealand Rugby. In a moment of true honesty, Kirwin said he himself was not a great coach (of the Blues) and therefore he resigned.
But Wilson and Kirwin were mostly angry about Robinson and New Zealand Rugby and the conference they are having now.
“What will they talk about that they didn’t talk about six months ago?” asks Wilson.
If the All Blacks fall apart in the matches against the Springboks maybe that will shock them into doing something about Foster. But what if the All Blacks do reasonably well against the Boks? Then Foster will remain in charge for another match, and another match, and another match, and – whoah! Here’s the World Cup.
Ian Foster wants to keep his job. You can’t blame him for that.
But you, Mister Robinson, better make the tough decisions or take the punch. If the All Blacks fail at the World Cup, you are the guy who blamed and pointed fingers – and did not have the courage to get rid of Foster.
Image source: @AllBlacks
