All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and captain Sam Cane after Saturday night's series loss to Ireland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and captain Sam Cane after Saturday night's series loss to Ireland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The argument for sacking Ian Foster was given a major boost on Saturday night when a collective groan across the country punctuated the All Blacks' defeat at the hands of resilient Irish.
Calls for the head of Foster are nothing new.
Since his appointment in 2019, pundits and fans alike have questioned whether he's the right man for the job.
"People want Scott Robertson to be in the job so much, that they're almost willing the All Blacks to lose," says Smith.
"But I don't think it's just Ian Foster. I think it's his entire coaching team, which needs to be under a bit of scrutiny here. From what I understand, Ian Foster is well respected by the players. They really enjoy being coached by him, but clearly, there's a disconnect somewhere along the way.
"Ultimately, the coaching team does take responsibility for what we're seeing out on the park and Ian Foster is the tone-setter for this."
The focus on the coaches, says Smith, shouldn't give the players a free pass for what has been a series of horrendous performances that have seen the All Blacks lose four of their last five international fixtures.
"Sam Cane does need to take some leadership responsibility," says Smith.
"When you look at some of the other leaders that have been around the All Blacks in previous years, there is a feeling that when we went behind in the past, there would have been a huddle under the posts, galvanizing the team and drawing them together."
Commentating on the match on Saturday night, Smith didn't see anyone step up to lift the team out of the hole they were digging for themselves.
"The big question has to be why some of these players, who play so superbly at Super Rugby level and show the most wondrous skills lost the ability to catch, pass and kick when they play for the All Blacks. I've never seen anything like it," the commentator says.
"There's always been talk about pulling on an All Blacks jersey and becoming a better player, but we've seen players go for Super Rugby to All Blacks level and lose their basic abilities."
Looking at the performances so far, Smith says he can understand the calls to bring in a new coach given the comments from rugby stalwarts like former All Black Sean Fitzpatrick, who said the team was outcoached.
"Change would naturally bring in some fresh ideas to the All Blacks and they desperately seem to need that," says Smith.
"At the moment, they look bereft of a game plan or any ideas when a plan isn't working. They just don't seem to have a plan B. So you'd hope that a regime change would help on that front."
Smith does, however, advise fans to temper their expectations and face the fact that this isn't the same team that was previously regarded as invincible.
"The other thing to remember about this is that the kind of players that the All Blacks had in the 2010s – the Richie McCaws, the Dan Carters – were not only once in a generation. They were almost once in a lifetime sort of players," says Smith.
"The All Blacks were always expected to win, but what they did between 2012 and 2015 set a very high standard, which simply can't be maintained. They were electric and unbeatable for four years at that point in time. Things began to slip in 2017. There is a need for a longer-term rebuild. This is not just a 2022 problem."
Regardless of what's to blame, Foster does appear to be on borrowed time. And every poor performance is just heaping further pressure on a man, whose job won't become any easier with the prospect of travelling to play South Africa in August.
