Ian Foster's coaching future with the All Blacks is up in the air. Photo / Photosport
Ian Foster's coaching future with the All Blacks is up in the air. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand Rugby has opted to pursue a "treat them mean, keep them keen" philosophy with the All Blacks coaching team.
With effectively just four months to run on their two-year contracts, none of Ian Foster, John Plumtree, Brad Mooar, Greg Feek or Scott McLeod have any indication whether theywill be tasked with taking the All Blacks through to the next World Cup.
No All Blacks coaching group in the last 20 years has been left in limbo so close to the expiry of their existing deal and the Herald has become aware that the situation is frustrating senior players, who unanimously support Foster being granted a two-year extension.
No one knows when NZR, who have been contacted to provide an update on the current plan but have chosen not to comment, intends to begin negotiations with the incumbent coaching team or even if they will and this uncertainty is generating a significant source of tension between the team's leadership and their employer.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster is said to have the support of the players to have his contract extended. Photo / Photosport
The former feels the incumbent coaching team have proven themselves as the right group to take the All Blacks to France in 2023, while the latter has not yet been convinced.
What precisely NZR - specifically their board who need to approve any contract extension - are waiting to see is unknown, but they seem content to believe that their silence will create uncertainty and uncertainty will prove motivating.
Conversely those inside the All Blacks camp are leaning more towards the view that uncertainty is in danger of becoming debilitating, stress-inducing, a negative force that inhibits good decision-making.
With the probability increasing that the All Blacks will be forced to spend three months offshore from late August, the squad is understood to not want this state of limbo to continue, leaving them with yet more mental baggage to carry through what will be an already hugely challenging quest.
The pandemic cut short the All Blacks season in 2020 and reduced the programme to just six tests – in which they produced three outstanding performances, two poor ones and a mixed bag in their opening draw with the Wallabies.
Since then they have added four more wins and produced ample evidence they are a highly capable team, albeit one that continues to show signs of its inexperience.
Crucially, Foster's record now stands comparison with his predecessors, who were all granted contract extensions after being in charge for a similar number of tests.
In his 10 tests as head coach the All Blacks have posted a 70 per cent win ratio [an 80 per cent undefeated ratio], retained the Bledisloe Cup and won the Rugby Championship.
If the All Blacks should beat the Wallabies again at Eden Park and retain the Bledisloe Cup for a second time under Foster – a trophy deemed the second highest priority behind the World Cup – based on historical comparisons, NZR will have little to no statistical basis on which to retain its non-committal stance.
Ian Foster's coaching future with the All Blacks is up in the air. Photo / Photosport
The Herald understands that information flow between Foster and NZR on the specific issue of a contract extension has dried up.
It's an unprecedented scenario in the professional age, made yet more odd by the events of late last year which saw the specialist rugby committee, which conducted the usual 360-degree review of the season, recommend an immediate commencement of extension talks, only for the NZR board to reject that advice.
What led the NZR board to go against that recommendation is not clear, but it is believed that while Foster reviewed particularly well, two of his assistants didn't.
There is speculation that the board are holding off discussing an extension with Foster until they see how the All Blacks perform against the more defensive and forward-orientated Springboks and also the French and Irish later this year.
Having seen the way the All Blacks were knocked out of the last World Cup by a rampant and bruising England team and then how the Pumas unsettled New Zealand last year with a similarly muscular style, there is supposedly some concern around the board table about the ability of the coaching team to develop a robust enough pack with the set-piece clout and breakdown wherewithal to compete with those sorts of teams.
The Herald understands, however, that none of the coaching team have received specific feedback following last year's review about areas to target for improvement.
Two of Ian Foster's coaching team are said to have reviewed poorly after last season. Photo / Photosport
What further unsettled the coaching team was that in the build-up to the test against Fiji this year in Dunedin, NZR announced that they had rewarded Crusaders coach Scott Robertson with a three-year extension that comes with a clause to enable him to take the All Blacks job should it become available.
Having competed against and beaten Robertson for the All Blacks job in 2019, Foster was entitled to be curious that the man NZR didn't back has certainty about his future, while the man they did has no clue as to what his employer is thinking.
Robertson, having coached the Crusaders to five consecutive Super Rugby titles, has unquestionably earned his extension, but the view within the All Blacks is that so too has Foster and that current lack of support and communication will be unjustifiable should the Bledisloe be captured this weekend.
