2019 Rugby World Cup: A chance for revenge? All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster focused on Wales bronze medal match as England rematch in 2020 looms

The All Blacks will be focusing on their next challenge, the World Cup bronze medal match against Wales on Friday night, but will have one eye looking ahead to the chance for revenge against England next year.

After the dust of the World Cup settles, the All Blacks will know that they will have another shot at England with a test in Twickenham set for 7 November 2020, which was confirmed by the English Rugby Union this month.

The England match was the first test announced for the All Blacks in their northern tour late next year.

While the All Blacks are firmly focused on the upcoming test against Wales, assistant coach Ian Foster admitted that his side will be looking forward to playing England again in the future.

"It's a great rivalry," Foster said yesterday. "And if you don't play each other for a while, it can sort of drift away. Some of that is just the quirk of the calendar, but clearly we would be pretty keen to play them again sometime."

After what must have been a painstaking and particularly tough review of the semifinal loss, Foster said one of the things the All Blacks lacked was the ability to adapt during the game.

"I think if you asked England and you asked us, we would probably both change things in the game.

"Would we change our overall tactical approach? Probably not. But there were phases in the game that we needed to shift and do something a little bit different.

"It's not about changing the whole plan but certainly during the game, there was ebbs and flows during that game that we probably needed to shift and change our focus. But that's all part of learning."

Ian Foster. Photo / Photosport

Whether Foster will still be in the All Blacks set up come November next year is another question altogether, with Steve Hansen stepping down as head coach after the tournament in Japan.

But for now Foster, who sidestepped questions about his future as a potential successor, has his sights firmly set on the task at hand against Wales.

"We see it as a chance to in some ways redeem ourselves.

"Right now, I'm just excited about a World Cup. And my whole goal was about making sure that we did the best that we can do at this World Cup.

"We've lost to England but the World Cup is not finished and I've just got to keep doing it, putting all my energy into that and what will happen after that will happen and we'll have plenty of time to talk about that."