Ian Foster has doubled down on his call for the announcement of the All Blacks coach beyond 2023 to be made following this year’s World Cup and no earlier.
Following a historically poor start to the All Balcks’ 2022 international season, New Zealand Rugby launched a review into the team and caching group, ultimately backing Ian Foster “100 percent” through until the 2023 World Cup.
Recent murmurs and comments however have caused a significant enough disruption within the camp for the coach to speak out, calling for NZR to keep their word and prove their support is 100 percent behind him and his staff without letting external voices have such a heavy influence on their decision making.
When The Platform later asked if he felt he’d done the right thing by speaking out, Foster doubled down: “Absolutely. I’m not trying to do anything overtly clever here, I’m just trying to express what the All Blacks head coach thinks of what’s happening here at the moment.
“It’s about my team,” Foster said. “One of the All Blacks’ big rocks, values, call it whatever you like, that we have is that the team comes first and the decisions that we make is about the team and for me when I know that things are happening that are impacting on my group, my role is to poke my head up and I guess say what I think.
“I’ve sat quiet and I’ve toed the line listening to this conversation and debate and all my management is hearing is that other people are determining the timelines for what happens in this team.
“What I’m saying may not change a lot, but I’ve said what I thought and I guess I’ll be judged for that.”
