Just one year after the Rugby World Cup, theAll Blacksare in jeopardy. Not a small crisis or a kind of crisis, but a full-blown catastrophe.
On Monday morning, they announced coach Most likely without. Rugby Championship clashes at Ellis Park - In a declaration unthinkable in most of the country's rugby history, a defeat toNew Zealand felt inevitable.
Just 13 months before they face France in the World Cup opener in Paris, they will almost certainly start looking for someone to lead them. If not, it's hard for the most ludicrously optimistic All Blacks fans to believe that anything other than disaster awaits at the global showpiece. In 2018, France became the antithesis of this iterative All Blacks – a stylish and dynamic team with a clear attacking structure set up and executed by a world-class coaching team with a clear and cohesive vision. Many world-class players who have joined the project and have not reached the cap yet.
By contrast, New Zealand have lost five of their last six games, dropping to his lowest ever fifth place in the world rankings, their first home win since losing to Ireland last month in 1994. suffered a loss in his test series. She suffered her first crushing loss in 94 years to South Africa last weekend. And frankly, the fact that he could only read 26-10 on the scoreboard at the final whistle pleased the All Blacks. Foster had the worst winning percentage of any All Blacks coach since his 1970s, and legitimate debates began popping up on podcasts about whether captain Sam Kane would make it into the starting XV for the Northern Hemisphere Tier 1 team.
You have plenty of time to explore a broader range of annoyances. From the complete breakdown of trust between New Zealand rugby and its players, exacerbated by the recent controversial NZ$200 million deal with US-based private equity firm Silverlake, but also the loss of their youth side. Consequences and problems less than ever before. Appointing a relatively untested continuation candidate from the Steve Hansen era in the form of Foster means that Hansen's machine will continue to grow towards the end of his tenure. Whether it was a smart move to begin with when it was already showing many cracks... But the more pressing question is on the pitch.
South Africa beat the All Blacks last weekend
(EPA)
No attack plan available. The successes of the last 18 months always derive from his one-of-a-kind individual brilliance among the few remaining world-class operators, including Beauden Barrett, Will Jordan and Ardie Savea.
The All Blacks showed many problems against the Springboks last weekend. They couldn't quite handle the airstrikes - Kurt-Lee Arendse's first try illustrates it - they were overwhelmed in the breakdown, with the South African starter and front-row 'Bomb Squad' in scrum time. Came and annihilated. Off the bench. The lack of offensive cohesion left Barrett's ruse and line break as the only platform to build on. A fly-half reward for being a rare, consistently shining light in these dark times, being demoted to the bench this weekend as Richie Mounga moves in his 10th-place advantage.
Perhaps even more concerning was Foster's analysis immediately after. game. He cited improved defense and increased competition in the lineout as positives compared to the Irish series, but these were consolation at best.
Earlier this week, the New Zealand Herald, the country's largest newspaper and generally a bellwether of national mood, ran an editorial on its front page calling for Foster's dismissal. "A decent man deeply involved in a brutal business," the Herald claimed in an article published under the headline "Time for change." , is a timely reminder that in the land of the long white clouds, it's front-page news, not back-cover news.
Ian Foster's era as All Blacks coach appears to be coming to an end
(REUTERS)
New Zealand chief executive Mark Robinson recently refused to guarantee a coaching position beyond two games against South Africa, suggesting nothing short of a repeat win for Bok in Johannesburg on Saturday. Considering it wasn't over the weekend, attention is almost certainly shifting. To the question of who can get them out of this predicament in just 13 months.
There is no doubt that the All Blacks will change their fortunes in his 2023 tournament in France. Just by looking at their opponents this weekend, they can find recent evidence that the team turned things around just before the World Cup - winning the 2019 edition from the heights of the Springboks' rise. But it doesn't bode well for Foster. Because I needed a coach change. The 57-year-old is set to end his Allister Coetzee tenure as he oversees a historic low in South African rugby as well as the players currently scribing in New Zealand. , brought in Lassie Erasmus about 18 months before the tournament, causing a reversal of fortunes.
The All Blacks are in peril and Foster is likely to be sacrificed to prevent imminent cataclysm.