Irish legend Brian O’Driscoll has backed his former coach Joe Schmidt to replace Ian Foster before the World Cup while the embattled coach says he has the support of the players.
Foster announced on Sunday that two of his assistants were being let go, news that failed to satisfy many All Blacks fans reeling from four defeats in their past five Tests.
Ahead of taking his team to South Africa for a high pressure Rugby Championship double header, Foster appeared on The Breakdown, where he claimed to have sought and received backing from the players for him to continue.
Foster said he asked the players after the third Test and series loss to Ireland to consider if they still supported him.
“That’s one of the questions that I got them to talk about,” Foster said.
“I’m not in the room; it was just them and with all the noise around – there’s been a lot of people putting me under pressure for a long, long time so in many ways this is not new to the group.
“But part of my job is to go back and get an honest appraisal out of them about how I’m going and getting the belief factor
“I’ve had it loud and clear from them, but I also know with that comes a massive responsibility. That’s only one variable. I believe I’ve got the group; now I’ve got to deliver the plan. Part of the changes we’ve made are about making sure I’m not taking for granted their belief in the direction I’m heading, but I’m also listening to them and making the changes we all feel we need for this team.”
Foster has axed assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar. Crusaders forwards coach Jason Ryan will join the team in Plumtree’s place, while Foster will work with the backs for now.
Former Ireland coach Schmidt is to get a prominent role in strategy and attack play along with being anointed as a selector to replace retiring Grant Fox.
While Foster appears determined to see the job through to the Rugby World Cup next year, O’Driscoll said New Zealand should consider a brutal move to give them a better chance of success in France.
“This All Blacks team looks as though it’s struggling, it really does,” O’Driscoll told the Off the Ball podcast.
“Whereas knowing someone like Joe Schmidt or hearing what someone like Scott Robertson is like and that attention to detail, would they not be the perfect fit to come in and do something in a short period of time?
“Particularly Joe, I know him a lot more, he is made for this situation.
“This circumstance where their passing quality has been really poor, their unforced errors are so un-New Zealand like.
“All of those aspects, sharpen all that up; body contact, accuracy at the ruck, he would get all of that side right and then the knock on effect of them playing their free-flowing game happens organically.
“It’s not really a New Zealand thing to cut people, to go ‘Right, panic stations, get someone else in.’ So I can understand that they’re trying to work with Ian Foster.
New Zealand rugby writer Jamie Wall joins Brett McKay and Harry Jones to look at the crisis engulfing NZ Rugby
“But who knows? In a year or 15 months time, will it be to their detriment that they haven’t been more brutal with their decision-making and bring in someone who would definitely fix things in a very short space of time?”
Foster believes he and the team is capable of righting the ship and being a Cup contender.
“We’re connecting the dots. We’ve got to do it quicker,” Foster told The Breakdown.
Support coach Joe Schmidt runs through drills during a Blues training session at Blues HQ on February 05, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
“There are a couple of Achilles heels in our game that we dealt with well in the Irish series but they came to bite us in that third Test. We’ve got to sort those things out and if we can – and I have utter belief in the direction this group is going.
“But we have the Rugby Championship; we’ve got to hoe into our work, we’ve got to get away from feeling oppressed by all the tension that’s out there and we understand that people are frustrated but at the end of the day that doesn’t help us. We need clear heads, a desire to go and play, and fundamentally start doing the things we know we’re good at.”
Sam caned again
English rugby writer Stuart Barnes has doubled down on his criticism of All Blacks skipper Sam Cane, saying he would not be good enough to make Italy’s team as a No.7.
Barnes, writing in The Times, said Italy coach Kieran Crowley “wouldn’t swap his inspiring Michale Lamero for the brave, battered but decidedly second-hand looking Cane. Good enough for New Zealand, not for Italy.”
Barnes said the defeat to Ireland gave the All Blacks a chance for a reboot and an “opportunity to freshen up their leadership both on and off the field”.
“They did neither,” he concluded. “Ian Foster remains in charge off the field, Sam Cane on it.”
After the All Blacks’ 42-19 victory in the first Test, Barnes argued that Cane should be dropped and Ardie Savea shifted from No 8 to openside flanker.
Barnes said New Zealand rugby had failed to bring about enough change following the series defeat, with virtually the same squad named to play the Springboks and two assistant coach casualties. to Ireland.
“It’s one of the best definitions of madness,” Barnes wrote. “Something fails repeatedly so you work harder at doing the same thing. The blinkers are well and truly on.”
‘Nobody knew where it sat’
On a mission to be taken seriously, John Manenti says Commonwealth Games gold for Australia’s defunded men’s rugby sevens team would be a timely message to those doubting the program’s legitimacy.
The coach has overseen a remarkable turnaround since he and Tim Walsh, now back in charge of the Australian women’s team, swapped roles in the wake of a medal-less Tokyo Games.
The men’s program was also gutted of resources as part of Rugby Australia’s budget cuts, just six men offered full-time deals and Manenti left to procure fringe Super Rugby and club talent to fill his World Series squad.
They’ve defied those cuts and a long history of inconsistency though, Manenti tapping into his Shute Shield knowledge to build a squad that sits second with one World Series leg to play.
Wallabies star Samu Kerevi will miss the side’s two-Test tour of Argentina to join the squad at Birmingham’s Games later this week, while a maiden World Series title in late August and World Cup breakthrough in September beckon.
“In the space of six weeks we can write our own script on how we’re perceived,” Manenti told AAP.
“There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years; do we need it? Should it exist?
“The culling of the (full-time) players suggested they (RA) preferred to spend money in other places.”
Samu Kerevi. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
Manenti was Walsh’s assistant when the women won Olympic gold in Rio, an achievement that earned the groundbreaking, fully-professional squad a certain mystique.
Manenti wants similar for the men’s team.
“The perception of the program wasn’t what it should have been; nobody knew where it sat in the rugby landscape,” he said of when he took over.
“For us to be taken seriously we have to be consistently on the podium.
“(Gold in Birmingham would) endorse the work they’re doing and maybe give some belief to some people around the place that this is a valid program that does have really important place in Australian rugby.
“Without enormous resources, we’re punching above our weight at times but we know that’s the road we have to take to get there.
“Samu, turning away Tests to come here, you can’t undervalue that … now the boys feel like it’s a program they can be proud of.”
Australia, who trained for the first time in Birmingham on Sunday, play Kenya, Uganda and Jamaica in pool games from Friday.
World Series leaders South Africa, Olympic champions Fiji and defending Commonwealth champions New Zealand headline their separate pools but dangers lurk in all four groups.
But Manenti said the addition of more-experienced club rugby talents had been key.
“They’re not going out playing South Africa and New Zealand s***ting themselves and the contracted guys are feeling a breath of fresh air, thinking ‘how good’s this’,” he said.
“We’ve been working out how to fight our way out of bad situations, making teams work hard to beat us and we’ll trust the form guide that got us here.”
AUSTRALIAN MEN’S SEVENS SQUAD: Ben Dowling, Matt Gonzalez, Henry Hutchinson, Samu Kerevi, Nathan Lawson, Maurice Longbottom, Nick Malouf, Ben Marr, Mark Nawaqanitawase, Henry Paterson, Dietrich Roache, Corey Toole, Josh Turner.
PREVIOUS RESULTS
1998: Bronze
2002: Sixth
2006: Fourth
2010: Silver
2014: Bronze
2018: Fifth
(With AAP)
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