Ian Foster’s warning that there is a category of players who need to lift the quality of their performance in the second half of Super Rugby to remain in his World Cup plans sounds like classic sabre-rattling.
It’s standard practice for the All Blacks coach to pipe up atabout this stage of the season to send a mix of direct and veiled messages to the professional playing base.
As much as anything, it’s a way for the coach to let the public know that he’s seen what they have seen – hence Foster acknowledging to Stuff that Damian McKenzie is forcing the selectors to reconsider how he fits into their plans while noting that Shaun Stevenson and Emoni Narawa have caught his eye.
He endorsed the form of Sam Cane, suggested everyone should relax about Beauden Barrett because he’ll come good in the way world-class players always do, and without naming names, he warned there are some players who have been with the All Blacks before that need to significantly advance their game if they are to stay part of the equation.
It all sounded sensible and indeed typical, containing a bit of praise, some encouragement and a proverbial kick up the backside.
But the prospect is real that this mid-season review is indicative of more radical thinking and a genuine warning from Foster that he’s ready to wield the axe and head off to France without a handful of players many probably consider World Cup certainties.
Foster has found himself in the unprecedented position of heading to the World Cup knowing it will be his last act in the job.
Some have said Foster has been handed a free-hit at this tournament – an opportunity to open his shoulders and let rip without fearing the consequences of smashing it out of bounds.
That’s not quite true, though. His reputation remains on the line, but more importantly, he’s someone who has shown in the quietly dignified way in which he has conducted himself in the last two years and the decisions he has made that he’s fiercely protective of brand All Blacks.
But what is true is that New Zealand Rugby’s decision to appoint Scott Robertson as the next All Blacks coach has liberated Foster from some of the conventional thinking which has bound his predecessors.
If job preservation was part of the equation, Foster would be obliged to select his World Cup squad with the context of the last three years in mind – so post-tournament he could show how he used the cycle to identify and develop players to fit a clearly identified strategic vision.
But now that he’s out of a job regardless of what happens in France, he can pursue an unorthodox approach and indulge in a bit of gut instinct selecting where he favours form over experience.
He can gamble here and there on form players knowing he won’t have to front a review panel after the tournament to explain why he did so, and by name-checking Stevenson and Narawa he may have been sending a powerful message to Caleb Clarke, who continues to struggle to read defensive patterns.
Caleb Clarke. Photo / Photosport
When the composition of an All Blacks back three is considered, there are four capped players – Beauden Barrett, Mark Telea, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Will Jordan – who either on form or reputation are front of queue for selection, with Stevenson and Narawa the two uncapped players hotly challenging.
Leaving a player with Clarke’s running power at home would be perceived as a colossal risk for a coach trying to not only win a World Cup but an extension to their contract, but this is the beauty of Foster’s situation – he doesn’t have to show any loyalty to the marginal picks just so he has evidence of a pattern of selection consistency in his tenure.
If Stevenson and Narawa are spinning his wheels, then he can pick them without fear that he’ll be judged for investing three years in Clarke only to ditch him months before the World Cup.
It’s the same at halfback. If he’s confident that Aaron Smith and Finlay Christie are going to be the two in his matchday 23, then he can risk taking the uncapped but in-form Cam Roigard.
Levi Aumua has become an option in the midfield given his form this year and to get him to France that may mean leaving one, maybe even two from David Havili, Jack Goodhue, Braydon Ennor or Anton Lienert-Brown at home.
Foster wasn’t making an idle threat when he said that some players need to lift the quality and intensity of their rugby.
This year is going to play out under new selection rules and a few players are likely going to find out the hard way that form will be considered more important than test experience.
