NZR backs All Blacks coach Ian Foster to lead team through to Rugby World Cup

All Black coach Ian Foster will take the All Blacks through to the Rugby World Cup, the NZ Rugby Board has announced after a review of performance.

Watch the board media announcement here:

Former Ireland coach now All Blacks selector and analyst Joe Schmidt will be given an expanded role with the team.

The All Blacks produced one of the best performances in recent times to upset the Springboks at Ellis Park last Sunday.

However, Foster’s job had come under scrutiny following a run of five defeats from their last seven games, with NZR boss Mark Robinson refusing to back Foster after the All Blacks victory in Johannesburg.

Board fully backs Foster and Robinson

NZ Board chair Stewart Mitchell said the All Blacks win on Saturday was “magnificent”.

Performance was an ongoing conversation and it was agreed with Foster at the beginning of the year to do a thorough debrief at this time, Mitchell said.

“Doing this against the backdrop of the results and the media scrutiny, overlaying with people’s employment being managed in real time, however, has been hugely challenging.”

Foster provided management with his own recommendations about the coaching staff, he said, and the board had unanimously agreed Foster and this coaching group were the right people to bring the All Blacks through to the World Cup.

The decision had also been privately and publicly validated with the players, he said.

Schmidt’s new expanded role comes as a result of his positive impact over the past two weeks, he said.

Jason Ryan also had a similarly positive impact in South Africa in his two weeks in the role, Mitchell said.

“We’re very excited about the potential of this incredible capable and experienced coaching trio going forward.”

The fever pitch the conversation had reached at times put unfair pressure on both Foster and Mark Robinson, he said.

“Have we got everything right? Possibly not, but it’s not through a lack of care … we will take any learnings with us, we know we need to hold ourselves to the same standards as we do our teams in black.”

‘I expect to be grilled’ – Foster

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster (left) at the NZ Rugby media conference this afternoon.
Photo: RNZ

Foster said he was delighted to have the support of the board.

“I expect to be grilled in that space and so over the last month we’ve had a lot of conversations about how we can grow our organisations and get the performance that we want on the park.

“We have made some changes and we’re continuing to keep evaluating in our group … and really delighted with where we’ve got to from today onwards.”

He said he had his eyes on Schmidt for some time, and it had now been decided to move him “out of the computer room and actually put him on the park a bit more”.

The team is trying to make changes on the park as well, he said, to have a strong nucleus to go through to the World Cup.