Pressure on coach Foster as All Blacks beaten again
PARIS: New Zealand face some serious soul-searching, with the focus on head coach Ian Foster, after they were completely outplayed by France in Paris on Saturday to end their worst year since 2009.
The 40-25 defeat left the All Blacks with a 12-3 win-loss record in 2021, while Graham Henry’s side suffered a 14-4 season 12 years ago.
“There will be some very big questions aimed at the All Black coaching set-up,” said Radio New Zealand’s Jamie Wall after the defeat, which came a week after losing to Ireland.
For a remarkable 508 weeks, until just before the start of the 2019 World Cup in Japan, the three-time world champions All Blacks dominated rugby as the top ranked side in the world.
But the fear factor they then possessed has been fading ever since.
Covid restrictions have forced Foster’s squad to play their last nine Tests over 12 weeks away from home, but New Zealand’s media see the problems as much more than travel fatigue.
“World rugby has a new global order, and right now the All Blacks are on the outside looking in,” Marc Hinton wrote on news site Stuff.
He described the All Blacks as being “officially in free-fall” less than two years from the 2023 World Cup in France.
Rugby columnist Gregor Paul of New Zealand Herald said: “The problem for the All Blacks now is that the world doesn’t fear them because the world doesn’t have to.
“The All Blacks have a number of undeniable issues, many of which appear to be running too deep to be blamed on mounting fatigue at the end of a hard year.
“Their gameplan looks confused — an erratic mix of buzzing about behind the gainline and then kicking poorly under pressure.”
SMITH HAILS WILKINSON
England fly-half Marcus Smith paid tribute to World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson after his last-minute penalty secured a 27-26 victory over South Africa on Saturday in the teams’ first meeting since their 2019 World Cup final loss to the Springboks.
Smith, 22, said he has been working with Wilkinson in training and had also been in contact with captain Owen Farrell, who missed the game after ankle surgery and is expected to be out for up to 12 weeks.
“It’s all down to [Wilkinson],” Smith said. “He’s been working hard with me and, again, putting his arm around me and allowing me to explore at the weekend. I appreciated it, big time. We said four weeks ago this was the game we wanted to target.”
The victory over South Africa rounded off England’s year following impressive wins over Tonga and Australia. They will take on Scotland at Murrayfield in their first Six Nations match on Feb 5.
WALES EDGE 14-MAN WALLABIES
Wales coach Wayne Pivac said it was a “funny game” as his side almost let a commanding lead slip against 14-man Australia but rallied to win 29-28 with a penalty after the hooter at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
Australia had No.8 Rob Valetini red carded after 14 minutes and trailed by 10 points going into the final quarter of the match.
They then led past the 80 minute mark before Rhys Priestland snatched a victory for Wales that Pivac felt should have been much more comfortable.
“It was a funny game. Stop-start with not a lot of rugby played in the first half, or that’s how it seemed. Getting ahead 23-13, we were feeling good,” Pivac told reporters.
“Mistakes started to creep in. It was a game I felt we should have run away with, but we made it hard for ourselves. I was happy with the guys out there salvaging the game.”