Coach Ian Foster of New Zealand looks on during a press conference following the International Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Ireland. Photo / Getty Images.
Coach Ian Foster of New Zealand looks on during a press conference following the International Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Ireland. Photo / Getty Images.
Embattled All Blacks coach Ian Foster heaped praise on Ireland following their historic series win in New Zealand and deflected speculation from his future after another dispiriting defeat further fuelled angst with an increasingly troubling tenure.
In the wake of the 32-22 defeat in Wellington, the fourth All Blacks loss from their last five tests, Foster was forced to reject three questions about whether he remains the right man to lead the team.
"I just want to talk about this test match," Foster said.
Asked for his message to disgruntled All Blacks fans as national anxiety reaches fever pitch, Foster diverted attention to Andy Farrell's Irish side that captured the first series victory by an away side in New Zealand since 1994.
"New Zealand has to realise this is a very good Irish team and give them some credit," Foster said. "It would be disrespectful to not make that the number one item. They've come and achieved something pretty special and they deserve a bit of time in the sun for that.
"For us we're a group working hard. We've got a lot of belief in many of the solutions we've got but we've got to get better at executing them.
Debutant Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (L) and Richie Mo'unga of New Zealand talk during the International Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Ireland. Photo / Getty Images.
"We've been given a real marker in the sand for where we're at."
Despite mounting a second-half comeback that featured three tries to Ardie Savea, Akira Ioane and Will Jordan to close within five points, the All Blacks dire first-half performance left far too much ground to make up. After trailing 22-3 at the break, Foster struggled to explain why his side started poorly for the third successive week.
"Not really because we've talked a lot about it. For some reason we're not as calm, particularly defensively. It's more the defence where we're getting fidgety early, we're letting a few holes through. Ireland aren't a team that you can allow to get behind you. That is when they play an up-tempo game. We've done that and it's hurt us. We've worked on it but, again, they got that early momentum.
"The first half we got too loose at times. In the second half we carried, we were more direct, some of our counter-attack stuff was working well. There were a couple of times post line breaks we couldn't get our support quick enough on the man. Those moments hurt. We'll dig into that."
Foster revealed All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick suffered a broken cheekbone - that will rule him out for six-to-eight weeks - as a result of the second half head-on-head clash that earned Irish prop Andrew Porter a yellow card but he did not criticise referee Wayne Barnes' decision.
Dejected All Blacks captain Sam Cane felt a response was coming following last week's Dunedin defeat and was, therefore, surprised to find his men on the back foot from the outset.
The All Blacks after their loss last night. Photo by Mark Mitchell
"We had a lot of confidence going into this weekend because of how hard we'd worked and what we'd put on the training park," Cane said. "Out there it was too inconsistent with the good and bad moments. When we went back-to-back with the good stuff we look flash but too many times we're not backing those up.
"I know the boys are trying extremely hard and they're hurting a lot right now. The only good thing that can come out of this is we use it as fuel to get better. If we don't learn, don't use the experience of this series, then it's wasted. We've got to pick ourselves up really quickly, find solutions and find a way to go forward from it.
"We've got a heck of a lot of respect for them as a footy team as players and a nation. They came down here and really tested us. We were beaten by a better side."
The All Blacks next task is attempting to prepare for a torrid two-test South African tour, starting August 7. Joe Schmidt is set to join the All Blacks for the Rugby Championship but, before then, the New Zealand Rugby board is expected to ask tough questions of Foster and his coaching staff.
Foster, though, remains confident he can find the answers and galvanise the team.
"We've got to go and analyse that series again deeply," he said. "It was a series we had a number of disruptions to our original plans but we were able to build a number of parts of our game. We weren't as bothered by line speed as we were before. There's a few things we got right but we're not getting enough big moments right and were certainly not getting the start right.
"There's a number of new players who were exposed to a very intense series, one we haven't had for a while. It's given a massive marker for this particular group about where we are at. There's no doubt we have to roll our sleeves up and get a lot of work done."
