OPINION:
Faith in the All Black coaching regime hasn't been so low for a long time, and with very good reason.
And to New Zealand Rugby I would say this - it's not too late to admit to a mistake, make the change, relieve Ian Foster of his post when
Chris Rattue: All the doubts about All Blacks coach Ian Foster have come flooding back
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All the doubts about Foster came flooding back after a performance against Fiji so tame that a surprising number of players managed to put their test futures in jeopardy against a hastily constructed team from a famous rugby pauper.
Not that New Zealand Rugby will listen to the masses, always believing that it knows best and almost never has to explain itself.
Even the axe hovering over All Black coaches has now been blunted, by a jobs-for-the-boys scheme called a succession plan.
But NZR needs to know that the bulk of the rugby/sports population wanted complete change after the embarrassingly bad World Cup semifinal loss to England, when Sir Steve Hansen's final few chapters involved losing the plot.
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As the Peter principle claims, most people rise to a level of incompetence within any organisation, largely because the jobs actually change a lot as you make each step up the ladder. Head coach and assistant coach only sound similar.
Even Foster's coaching cadre has a contrived political feel, of people thrown together to get the job, not get the job done.
The public has never been totally convinced, even when the All Blacks were firing on all cylinders under Hansen's extraordinary leadership. The general tone I detected was this: "Okay, if the All Blacks are going well, Foster deserves his chance".
Some coaches have the x-factor, and some don't.
Sir Graham Henry still had amazing support after his 2007 side capitulated to France in the World Cup. Hansen's alpha male persona and incredible record, the amazing heights of skill and resilience his teams reached, spared him proper scrutiny as the selections spun out of order and the tactics grew stale before and during the last World Cup.
Foster won't get those breaks. He came into the job via a back door, never building a head coaching resume deserving of world rugby's most coveted job.
The absence of public faith matched a lack of conviction, energy and grunt from his team against Fiji on Saturday night, and individuals were exposed.
To pick on a few issues…lock Patrick Tuipulotu had a shocker, Hoskins Sotutu's only moderate physical authority is a major problem at No. 8, Rieko Ioane has never looked like a test centre, and Codie Taylor's sensational early season form has faded.
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It was also was no surprise to see Aaron Smith's game affected by captaincy. The high-energy, high-volume Smith is a man best left to his own devices.
Second half replacement Dane Coles is getting a lot of the credit for the late scoring surge in Dunedin but it was the arrival of legendary lock Sam Whitelock which established the All Blacks' authority.
To some degree, Tuipulotu represented a selection mismatch alongside Brodie Retallick, who showed glimpses of his best alongside evidence of rustiness at this level.
Retallick and Whitelock are giant all-rounders, but of yin and yang strengths. The greatest locking combo in history relies on Retallick ruling the ground warfare, while Whitelock is the air force. Tuipulotu is more of a replacement for Retallick than Whitelock.
Without a doubt, Fiji would have been played out of the game early on if Whitelock had started.
Relating that to the bigger picture, the All Blacks' shaky command will collapse when Retallick and Whitelock are past their prime.
Without them, the All Blacks are just another leading test side. It is time for some kind of revolution, in spirit and style.
The last World Cup simply confirmed that the All Blacks had hit a point where the best odds lay in reinventing the wheel, not clinging to the inner circle.
