Rugby: How All Blacks coach Ian Foster can keep his job - Sir John Kirwan

All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan says now is not the time to change the All Blacks coach as pressure mounts on Ian Foster following the 2-1 series defeat to Ireland.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB's Tim Dower, Kirwan was asked if now was the time to change the coaching staff.

"Not at all. I think there's going to be some real decisions to make. They've got the Rugby Championship coming up, flying to South Africa next week. It's never been done in the history of the game [firing an All Blacks coach]. I believe Ian Foster can turn this around. Well he has to turn it around - should I say.

"With the Rugby Championship, if we win that and we see some signs of improvement, then I think he'll survive. If not then I think it will be a very interesting debate."

Kirwan said Foster should have been given the chance to front the media yesterday when the planned press conference was cancelled.

"He won't be happy with his results. The New Zealand public and the All Blacks expect results. They've already been reviewed over the summer so the thing that happened yesterday, you've got to front up. Front up and say 'I want the job' and say 'I want to stay here'. Second thing is the NZR shouldn't say they want to review, they should have come out and said we support him or we don't. Putting it off to say you want to review just adds way more fuel to the fire."

All Black coach Ian Foster and captain Sam Cane look on at the press conference following the second test defeat in Dunedin. Photo / Getty

Kirwan said he didn't like what he saw in the 32-22 defeat at Sky Stadium in Wellington.

"Pretty disappointing to be fair. There's a lot of negativity out there because the All Blacks are not showing the cohesiveness and the action around the way they defend and the way they attack. What we've seen is a comprehensive win from a very very good Ireland side and none of us are used to that.

"The Irish were outstanding, their possession and position states were unbelievable, they have a really good form of attack and the All Blacks in comparison looked uncertain on attack and a bit tentative on defence. It was a bit of a shock for everyone to see that happening to be fair," Kirwan said.

"To be fair to the All Blacks, this Irish side are a very very good side and have been together for a long time. They haven't had any disruptions. The All Blacks did have a lot of disruption. They had guys pulling out, they had Covid but in New Zealand we don't make excuses and the All Blacks certainly don't make excuses. It was certainly a sub-standard performance from their point of view.

"At the end of the day they were a better side. The All Blacks have a lot of soul-searching to do. They are trying to change their attack and it's clunky - it's not in their system. In defense there was a lot of individual errors," he added.