Ian Foster has been appointed as new All Blacks head coach. Photo / Photosport
Ian Foster has been appointed as new All Blacks head coach. Photo / Photosport
COMMENT:
Ian Foster is the perfect feel-nothing appointment for these feel-nothing times.
There might be a small part of you that wants to feel aggrieved for far-more-interesting Scott Robertson, but it's impossible to get too worked up about it.
Cast your mind back to December 15, 2011, and the scepticism when Foster was appointed as Steve Hansen's right-hand man after a less than stellar tenure at the helm of the underachieving Chiefs. (Just quietly, his eight-year reign in Hamilton did not look any better when Dave Rennie succeeded him and won back-to-back Super Rugby titles.)
This author had already written that he was about to be named as Hansen's assistant, a story that was met with cynicism even among Herald "colleagues", including one who used his platform to describe the piece, which admittedly cited anonymous sources, as a "weird theory".
In a way he was right. It did seem weird. It was dead-set true though.
It was widely assumed that he would be the head coach's "yes" man and although there were well-placed quotes by Hansen from time to time that pointed to Foster's autonomy and strategic genius, you suspect he largely was.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There are many theories about best-practice in team sports but one aspect remains unchallenged and that is the buck has to stop with someone.
In the All Blacks, that someone was always Hansen.
Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson during the Super Rugby season. Photo / Photosport
Based purely on his record as an assistant, he's probably deserved it even if it felt like the All Blacks failed to win the World Cup on the back of an 18-month form slide.
If that doesn't sound like an overwhelming endorsement, then it's only because it's totally underwhelming, utterly predictable news.
This is a time of unprecedented challenges for a sport that is trying to fight wars on multiple fronts against enemies as diverse as a financial tide that is flowing inexorably north, falling playing and spectating numbers, and an increasingly elitist 1st XV system that is failing its athletes and the sport.
It is a time for decisive action.
It is a time for change.
Just not when it comes to the All Blacks.
They're the one team/brand that New Zealand Rugby can count on as a constant.
Over the past eight years, they've become a trophy hoovering mega-team and a commercial juggernaut.
Sure, the last tournament didn't go to plan but you can't win them all.
And who was there, if not at the helm then certainly on the bridge, during those great and good years?
I'll tell you who wasn't – the man they call Razor.
You might counter that it was because he was too busy winning back-to-back-to-back Super Rugby titles but hey, Super Schmuper.
New CEO Mark Robinson and old chairman Brent Impey no doubt were enticed by the seamless transition from the Hansen era that Foster provides.
You can't blame them for playing the conservative hand.
It's just a shame Robinson had to pockmark the press release with a blatant lie.
