After the All Blacks lost to South Africa in Mbombela, it forced New Zealand Rugby to make a big decision. Gregor Paul details how events played out and why NZR chose to stay with Ian Foster.
When Handre Pollard converted a last-minute try to push the score out to 26-10, the 43,000 South Africans at Mbombela Stadium on August 7 knew they had witnessed the Springboks inflict one of the most comprehensive defeats the All Blacks had suffered.
Yet, head coach Ian Foster said: “I felt it was probably our most improved performance this year. I felt in some areas we really shifted our game forward.”
This desire to spin a positive narrative was understandable, as the All Blacks head coach was fighting to save his job.
Before he’d left for South Africa, he’d met with New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson and head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum.
The meeting, at Foster’s house, was tense, as the head coach initially resisted the request to axe assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar.
Foster was also told by his employer they expected the All Blacks to win at least one test in South Africa, and he felt he was being put under pressure to resign if both were lost.
By August 8, the specifics of the meeting at Foster’s house were rendered moot, as Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson was sounded out by NZR, to present a plan of who he would want in his wider team should the head coaching job become available.
The conversation with Robertson was sanctioned by NZR on “in principle” basis.
Robertson, known universally as Razor, was not being offered the job, he was not being interviewed, but he was being asked to present his ‘in theory’ coaching team and listed Leon MacDonald (Blues head coach), Jason Ryan (All Blacks forwards coach), Jason Holland (Hurricanes head coach) and Scott Hansen (Crusaders assistant coach) as his preferred line-up.
If Robinson was going to recommend to the NZR board that change should be made, there needed to be an understanding of what the alternative to Foster and his team would be, as the All Blacks would be assembling to play the Pumas just six days after they returned from South Africa.
Robertson’s ‘in principle’ team was deemed to lack heavyweight international experience — a problem NZR felt could be fixed if Robertson could find room for Joe Schmidt, the former Ireland head coach who Foster had only just enticed, after two years of persuasion, to join the All Blacks as a selector.
Schmidt, who had not travelled to South Africa, was encouraged by NZR to meet Robertson to determine whether they could work together.
Whether they were aware of what was playing out, or reacting to media speculation, the Crusaders, Blues and Hurricanes were by August 10 preparing to lose their head coaches.
Emergency board meetings were called, action plans scrambled, and it is understood that the Blues got so far as to put together a shortlist, which included former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.
When Robinson changed his original plan to leave the Republic before the second match at Ellis Park, expectation heightened that he was staying to host a media conference on the Sunday morning to announce a change of head coach.
Foster cut a forlorn figure in Johannesburg that week — constantly seen pacing the corridor of the team hotel, his ear glued to his phone, his world seemingly about to be tipped upside down and the tide running against him after the Herald on August 8 had published a front-page editorial calling for change.
But three things, one in particular, would change the course of history and see Foster retained.
The first and most important development was that Schmidt ruled out working with Robertson after the two had met.
Schmidt, it is believed, explained that he felt a loyalty to Foster and discomfort at being asked to meet with another potential head coach.
The process had challenged his integrity, but having fulfilled his employer’s request and in declaring his allegiance to Foster as his reason for not wanting to jump ship, he came out with a clear conscience.
Schmidt’s loyalty tipped the balance in favour of the incumbent, as a Foster, Ryan, Schmidt combination had more experience than a Robertson, Ryan, MacDonald combination.
If Schmidt had indicated a willingness to join Team Razor, it is probable that Robinson would have recommended to the NZR board that the All Blacks part company with Foster.
Schmidt’s value is not his head coaching experience per se, but that he operated in the Northern Hemisphere for 14 years – with Clermont, Leinster and then Ireland — so has a unique insight into the Six Nations.
And given the threat these European nations pose to the All Blacks World Cup ambitions, Schmidt became the inadvertent king-maker in the decision-making process.
The other two factors that kept Foster in his job were the result at Ellis Park and the actions after the game of senior players.
The All Blacks won 35-23 at the spiritual home of the Springboks.
Still, after being asked by Sky analyst Jeff Wilson just minutes after the game whether he knew if he would be the coach of the team for the next test, Foster replied: “I’ve got no idea. I’m just going to enjoy tonight.”
Later that night, it is understood Sam Whitelock led a handful of players — which is believed to have included Sam Cane, Aaron Smith and Ardie Savea among others - to Robinson’s room at the team hotel and laid out the case why they believed Foster, Ryan and Schmidt were their preferred coaching team.
At 11am New Zealand time on August 14 (1am SA time) an email was sent by NZR’s chief communications and brand officer Charlotte McLauchlan, inviting media to a zoom call with Robinson at 5.30pm NZT (7.30am SAT).
It is unclear why this conference was scheduled as Robinson famously had nothing to say and refused to provide any clarity about Foster’s future, other than to say: “There will be a board meeting at some stage.”
That board meeting took place after Robinson and Lendrum again met with Foster, in New Zealand on August 16.
Foster presented a plan to promote Schmidt to attack coach, at which point, the case to appoint Robertson collapsed.
The cost of axing Foster’s team — including the estimated $1m already paid out to Plumtree and Mooar — would have climbed by another $2m-$3m depending on negotiations; Super Rugby would have been decimated by the loss of three head coaches and all to parachute in a less experienced coaching team with just days before a test.
Robinson, it is believed, only made one recommendation to the board — to retain Foster until the end of his contract in 2023 and endorse the promotion of Schmidt.
On August 17, chairman Stewart Mitchell, Robinson and Foster fronted a press conference, at which the former said: “Yesterday, Mark and Chris Lendrum met with Ian to finalise conversations around where things sat after the first five tests of the year.
“Ian has provided management with his own recommendations, and these have in turn been recommended to the board who have unanimously agreed they have absolute confidence that Ian and this coaching group are the right people to lead the All Blacks through to the World Cup.”