@nzzp said in Foster's Firsts.:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Foster's Firsts.:
@booboo said in Foster's Firsts.:
@junior said in Foster's Firsts.:
@taniwharugby said in Foster's Firsts.:
@Chris-B I think the final was probably a summary of the team under him in the past 4 years.
Poor discipline, lack of composure, poor decision making mixed with some excellent rugby, doing enough to win the game, but not quite finishing what was started.
I think this is what is and has been so frustrating - this tournament showed that actually we did have the cattle (despite being told for years that we didn’t). I do think with better coaching over the previous 4 years the team would have won that match.
Did we have the cattle? Or did the coach get a performance out of them greater than the sum of the parts?
How could anyone look at the Ireland game and what they achieved with a man down in the final and claim we didn't have the cattle?. I'm over this nonsense that Foster was simply working with the poor hand he'd been delt and turned water into wine. IMHO a better coach would have not only have won the Cup but also had better results in the interim.
You're a tough marker! I'm about to defend Foster, and that sucks - i didn't rate him, and wanted him gone years ago.
That said, Foster got the team up for the knockouts and playing the best, most cohesive footy of the last 4 years. That's a coaching win. Even with a red card, for SA to win we had to miss two kickable shots, and drop a shedload of ball, and have a try overturned outside the protocols. For the world cup, you'd have to say that Foster did his job.
For me, thought, Foster should have bene gone after 2 seasons. The signs were all there at the EOY tour in 2021 - but he'd been reappointed before then. It's tough, but htat's pro sport. We should have had Robertson in there early 2022, and who knows what hte squad looks like.
As for the 'cattle' discussion, I think if you look at the French or the SA, head to head the other side probably had better players. We did not have a settled loose trio, our tight 5 were way behind the game (don't let the RWC knockout disguise that) and overall we looked a far worse outfit than others. In some ways, that makes the efforts in hte last few weeks even more impressive - but does not make up for the utter shit we've seen from the ABs over the last few years.
I agree with you - I think we are talking about 2 Fosters.
The Ryan Schmidt era Foster, and that guy who started with 2 other assistant coaches who weren't quite up to it.
