@DaGrubster said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:
@Dan54
Danny, did you back the appointment of Fozzie originally?
Do you think we need Change now?
The frustrating thing about Foster and his reign as AB coach is that it has been entirely predictable. The vast majority of fans knew this was a poor appointment, notwithstanding the issues that lay ahead of NZ rugby after the RWC2019.
If the average Person can see something the NZR can’t? What does that say about how the game is run in this country?
I'll play devil's advocate here:
Foster's time as head coach with the Chiefs wasn't great. But people can develop and improve if they show that they can learn from past mistakes.
Foster was given massive wraps by Hansen working as his assistant in 2015. It suggested that he had learned from past mistakes and was capable of leading a high performance team. that was how Hansen sold it at the end of his tenure as head coach.
Hansen's recommendation and NZRU's steadfast refusal to move away from the succession planning that had worked since Henry (yielding 2 back to back world cups) is what led to Foster.
You can see some method to the madness, but I am intrigued to know what Foster presented to the NZRU hiring committee. If he sold them on changing the team's tactics, there is little evidence thus far to say he has delivered.
The alarm bells were ringing after Lions 2017, and certainly after WC 2019. Did NZRU go for the continuity candidate and ignore the signs that the ABs were going stale because continuity had been so successful in the past? Or did Foster convince them that he was going to do things very differently from Hansen and revitalise the team, and that as a member of the current coaching team he was best placed to do that in a more seamless manner than a new coach (e.g. Razor)? If so, how did he convince them that he was capable of doing this?