All Blacks: Ian Foster - 'I hope coaches can all have a beer together after series'

All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster. Photo by Mark Mitchell

Ian Foster regards the talk flying between the All Blacks and Lions coaches in this series as just part of the game these days and while he called Warren Gatland's recent comments regarding the targeting of players"a bit silly", he hopes they can all have a beer together after the third test.

It's clear that Gatland's insinuations that the All Blacks went after Conor Murray in the first test with the aim of hurting him have rankled.

Head coach Steve Hansen called them "desperate", with Foster saying today: "To take it any further than that is just a bit silly".

But All Blacks assistant coach Foster believes the "noise", as he called it, is a byproduct of what is at stake and the pressure on both camps.

"There are a few little issues floating around but we know it's going to be a titanic test match coming up," Foster said. "We're one-nil up but we know that there's going to be a very desperate team down the road, and if we're not desperate and we don't better that and match that then it's going to be a hard night for us."

The travelling media have been intrigued with the association between Gatland and Foster, two former teammates at Waikato, but while the Lions' coach has a house down the road in Hamilton, the All Blacks assistant said he didn't see the former hooker too often, given he lived on the other said of the world.

There were questions, too, about Gatland's mindset, which Foster answered with: "You're asking me a lot of questions about what I think Warren thinks, when you should probably ask Warren what he thinks. I'm not trying to be smart, but I'm pretty focused on what we do here and surprise, surprise, Saturday is going to be a massive test.

"We've had two weeks of a lot of noise early in the weeks and it seems to keep you guys pretty excited which is good but our job as coaches is to put that stuff to one side. And we expect it. I guess we probably give a bit. They give a little bit. It's all part of things when stakes are high. He's doing what he thinks he needs to do to prepare his team and we do what we need to do

"You get used to it. It's part of the environment when we play a big series. And for us this is a big series. We've been looking forward to this for a long time... [and] people try to find an edge in all sorts of different ways."

Asked if Foster and Gatland had a beer together after the first test at Eden Park, Foster, who chatted with his former teammate on the pitch before kick-off, said "no."

Asked if he would like to after the series is finished at Eden Park on July 8, Foster said: "I would love to yes, and I'm sure we will. We're all in this too. We're competitive. This is a huge series for us and for them. Everyone's putting everything on the line... we'll go hammer and tongs at each other but at the end of the third test hopefully we'll sit down and have a beer together and a yack about it."