Foster, Robertson etc
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@KiwiMurph said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@mariner4life said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
I don't think Ian Foster is doing a good job as the head coach. But, i also believe our player development in NZ has stalled over the past few years. Maybe not helped by spending all the time playing ourselves, or the Aussies who have their own issues. The best players in the country are in the squad. But some of them are not good enough.
Other than Samisoni who are the tight forwards who have come through in the last 5 years for the ABs?
Other than Samisoni those that have come through don't exactly scream 'future world xv contender'. They are placeholders.
and ST doesn't get nearly enough game time.
That's the big issue.
I'm more hopeful for the next 5 years looking at the pipeline but there's going to continue to be a suffering in between.
It will be interesting to see if Jason Ryan can help some of these guys lift their performances in the meantime.
Whilst I haven’t been a big fan, I thought Ta’avao was starting to look like a test prop in the last year or so (minus a very unfortunate red card incident). His work rate had improved, he looked in better shape and it was now just a matter of opportunity.
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@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior yeah I disagree. We don't see these same issues in high intensity SR games. The players have the skills (look at the difference between Jordan in black vs Jordan in red and black). It's got to come down to AB training, game plan and implementation for mine.
Fair point - it could be a combination of the training, game plan etc, as well as the inability of these players to execute the same skills at a higher level due to the relative lack of time to execute. Havili is probably a good example here - looks a million dollars with his passing and kicking at Super Rugby, but looks like he's moving in slow motion trying to execute the same skills at test level simply because everything else is moving that much faster and he's not.
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@gt12 said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Billy-Tell said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Machpants said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@nzzp said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
When you unpick the "Foster must go" argument and ask how many Tests you'd give a Foster-replacement to improve things (like the win percentage) before he too gets sacked, things get a bit more vague and/or complicated for some reason. Really can't think why if the quality of the coach is a key problem.
You asked this on the other thread, and it's a great challenge.
The consensus was it's not just the losing, but the way we're losing. We seem miles behind other nations, particularly England France Ireland in our attacking and defensive patterns. Our players no longer seem to be better than the opposition at the core skills and vision.
So, a better record, and/or visible improvements in the way we play.
If Foster had the team playing well and we lost to a better side, most folk would accept that as steps on the journey. Right now we're seeing players seem to get worse in the AB environment; muddled thinking, poor skills, woeful kicking, lack of clarity of action and gameplan, and slow speed of thought.
Joe Rocks, translated from French interview
Moreover, the attack game is not varied enough and faced with these increasingly better-organised defences, these movements, which worked until now, no longer work
There's not any innovation, that's totally on the coach. We lose cos the team is based on X factor and individual brilliance, and is not enough. We actually need to work for victory. The excellent Nick Bishop has any analysis on Rugby Pass about the midfield, and the crap we see now. Let's play a fullback and a wing in the midfield, cos X factor, yeah that'll work. And that's just one area of muddled X factor thinking of many.
Until foster is gone, the ABs are in a tactics free fall.
For the last six years, New Zealand have increasingly reached towards ‘X-factor’, rather than players steeped in the technical and physical demands of play at numbers 10, 12 and 13
Interesting that he is one of the few press that agree with the majority opinion here, is not just foster, but late Hansen as well
In fairness a good number of people on this forum wanted rieko at 13. We don’t have a lot of other options TBH with the injuries to ALB and JG. I’m going to wait & see how the next 2 tests go.
That is fair and it is based on a couple of things (a) the potentially massive upside of him developing into a world class centre - has physical gifts no player in world rugby can match (and for that reason, I reckon the ABs are not the only team who would play him in the 13 if given the chance), and (b) the realisation that our game relies almost entirely on individual brilliance and the natural conclusion from this that we need our individually brilliant players to get their hands on the ball as many times as possible in any given match in order to win (hence Ardie at 8, Beauden at 10 etc).
If we had a settled, well-functioning midfield combination (e.g. JG and ALB) and any semblance of a game plan most people would have accepted I think that RI should be left to play on the wing, with the possibility of moving into the midfield late on in games as the loosen up.
I actually think that if we had a functioning attack pattern in the ABs am we’d be seeing a lot more benefit from Rieko at 13. The potential to create mismatches in the midfield is there if we design structures to get it to happen.
Or we could use the midfield bomb after three phases…
Yeah, I mean standing flat on attack is not really the ideal way to give a guy with lighting pace the opportunity to regularly get on the outside of his man - it generally helps to have a bit of a run up to do this.
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@nzzp said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
When you unpick the "Foster must go" argument and ask how many Tests you'd give a Foster-replacement to improve things (like the win percentage) before he too gets sacked, things get a bit more vague and/or complicated for some reason. Really can't think why if the quality of the coach is a key problem.
You asked this on the other thread, and it's a great challenge.
The consensus was it's not just the losing, but the way we're losing. We seem miles behind other nations, particularly England France Ireland in our attacking and defensive patterns. Our players no longer seem to be better than the opposition at the core skills and vision.
So, a better record, and/or visible improvements in the way we play.
If Foster had the team playing well and we lost to a better side, most folk would accept that as steps on the journey. Right now we're seeing players seem to get worse in the AB environment; muddled thinking, poor skills, woeful kicking, lack of clarity of action and gameplan, and slow speed of thought.
Great post.
NZR were so quick to fire Mitchell and Deans who went through a clean sweep of the Tri-Nations, put 50 points on SA and Australia away. Won the Bledisloe and then lost one game, the semi and were fired. I think it was the only second game they lost that season. I think the All Blacks will be stronger for the changes but a 0-2 loss might be what the All Blacks really need.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Frank said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Foster is a problem and Razor would be a better coach. I am not sure why you are doubting this.
I admire your absolute certainty, I really do. He's a great coach at SR level, but think about where we'd be if Robertson repeats his U20 record with the AB's. In an ideal world he'd have taken an Assistant role so he could ease himself in but he turned that down saying it was head-honcho or nothing. You can say he didn't want to work under a clown, but the optics are poor.
Fair enough. But ceteris paribus, we gotta go with the best coach we can find first to see if that has a major influence. As for testing that coach, we would want to see an improvement in coherency, playing style, and yes results.
I don't see the ABs as a "suck it and see", experimental test-tube environment - we have to do better than that.
Robertson has had success as a head coach. Foster has not. Rather than think about where we'd be if Robertson replicates U20, think about where we are with Foster replicating the Chiefs.
There are two approaches for filling jobs: one is promoting from within, and one is recruiting from without - why do you think only promoting from within is valid? Appointing an un-proven as a head coach guy to a head coach role is just as much suck it and see: we've seen it, and it sucks. -
@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Machpants said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Personally the 2007 quarter final
That's interesting, the ABs were dominant in that game. It just the ref decided not to ref what was going on
We completely lost the plot in that game and had zero on-field management and ability to adapt. Some of the dumbest, brainless rugby an AB team has played IMO.
Ummmm....you're talking about the last 9 month?
Yep. Think one or two people were raging against that AB coach as well...
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@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I just think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
Nothing is a given. But would you prefer to stay with Fozzie? Almost any other pro sport and he would have been fired already
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@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Machpants said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Personally the 2007 quarter final
That's interesting, the ABs were dominant in that game. It just the ref decided not to ref what was going on
We completely lost the plot in that game and had zero on-field management and ability to adapt. Some of the dumbest, brainless rugby an AB team has played IMO.
We actually played quite smart, I thought, in the period after the yellow card - got the ball in the right area of the field, dominated possession, went forward up the guts with our forwards, soaked up the clock, and managed to bag a 5-pointer. The really dumb thing was that we didn't then get away from that when we went back up to 15 on the pitch and the French and barnes just started ignoring the breakdown rules, which meant the up the guts strategy became less effective.
I was there (sadly). My abiding memory was us hammering their line and not having the nous to go for drop goals. Dan sure as heck exorcised that little itch in 2015 though
My abiding memory after the game was a loud-mouth bloke in an England shirt taunting AB supporters and being decked by another bloke in a Saffa shirt. At least one of then was a Rugby fan.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
Well, that depends on the candidate, when they are appointed, for how long and what their mandate is.
In my view, the immediate plan should be to appoint someone to squeeze as much juice as possible out of these lemons as possible so that they don't embarrass themselves at the RWC next year. In parallel, you put in place the plan to appoint someone - maybe even the same guy, but I would hope they canvass all possibilities, unlike last time - to do the re-build from 2024 onwards.
In that scenario, the "what if they fail" outcome would be something like not making it out of pool at the RWC or exiting in the quarter finals in embarrassing fashion (i.e. getting pantsed like we were in the 3rd test against Ireland). We are already on this course and so I don't necessarily see this being fatal to whoever takes over continuing on in 2024 - but this will depend upon what the other potential options are.
Honestly, I don't see this scenario playing out because I think (a) between now and the EOYT there will be enough signs of life to carry on with Fozzie and his new assistants (plus whatever changes they may in next while), and (b) by the end of this year, no one would want to come within 100 ft of the role for such a short and (in all likelihood) ultimately doomed campaign - at least not from outside the current coaching group.
So, I think the best that can be expected for those who want Fozzie out is that Schmidt takes over in the new year with the current assistants, plus one or two others (maybe Leon and someone else), to basically put together something that might let us arse our way into a RWC final - looking at you England 2007 and France 2011 - and then Razor takes the reins in 2024, with Schmidt returning to his selector / analyst role.
And if I get a response like "and what if Razor fails", I will have to put you on mute - that is a problem for the future.
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@canefan said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
Nothing is a given. But would you prefer to stay with Fozzie? Almost any other pro sport and he would have been fired already
No, I'm not saying that at all. But that ship seems to have sailed and we have to work with the reality.
In my ideal scenario, we would have picked another coach and given him to the end of the 2022 EOYT to do better than Foster did in the same period in 2021 in the RC & EOYT, and have a contingency plan in place. If the new bloke didn't meet that criteria - e.g. 2 losses or less - activate that plan which could include sacking the new coach.
I hope that's what's happening now within NZR, but I'm not holding my breath....
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@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
Well, that depends on the candidate, when they are appointed, for how long and what their mandate is.
In my view, the immediate plan should be to appoint someone to squeeze as much juice as possible out of these lemons as possible so that they don't embarrass themselves at the RWC next year. In parallel, you put in place the plan to appoint someone - maybe even the same guy, but I would hope they canvass all possibilities, unlike last time - to do the re-build from 2024 onwards.
In that scenario, the "what if they fail" outcome would be something like not making it out of pool at the RWC or exiting in the quarter finals in embarrassing fashion (i.e. getting pantsed like we were in the 3rd test against Ireland). We are already on this course and so I don't necessarily see this being fatal to whoever takes over continuing on in 2024 - but this will depend upon what the other potential options are.
Honestly, I don't see this scenario playing out because I think (a) between now and the EOYT there will be enough signs of life to carry on with Fozzie and his new assistants (plus whatever changes they may in next while), and (b) by the end of this year, no one would want to come within 100 ft of the role for such a short and (in all likelihood) ultimately doomed campaign - at least not from outside the current coaching group.
So, I think the best that can be expected for those who want Fozzie out is that Schmidt takes over in the new year with the current assistants, plus one or two others (maybe Leon and someone else), to basically put together something that might let us arse our way into a RWC final - looking at you England 2007 and France 2011 - and then Razor takes the reins in 2024, with Schmidt returning to his selector / analyst role.
And if I get a response like "and what if Razor fails", I will have to put you on mute - that is a problem for the future.
Pretty hard to disagree with any of that.
The only thing I'd add is I'd like to see is a full and deep review after this years EOYT on the state of things and some calm sensible decisions made which looks towards maximising RWC2023 outcomes and building post 2023.
Oh and for this to be communicated a wee bit better from NZR than in the past.
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@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior yeah I disagree. We don't see these same issues in high intensity SR games. The players have the skills (look at the difference between Jordan in black vs Jordan in red and black). It's got to come down to AB training, game plan and implementation for mine.
The thing which is really frustrating is that the team can perform. The 3rd quarter against France last year and the 2nd quarter a week or so ago being examples.
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@reprobate said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Frank said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Foster is a problem and Razor would be a better coach. I am not sure why you are doubting this.
I admire your absolute certainty, I really do. He's a great coach at SR level, but think about where we'd be if Robertson repeats his U20 record with the AB's. In an ideal world he'd have taken an Assistant role so he could ease himself in but he turned that down saying it was head-honcho or nothing. You can say he didn't want to work under a clown, but the optics are poor.
Fair enough. But ceteris paribus, we gotta go with the best coach we can find first to see if that has a major influence. As for testing that coach, we would want to see an improvement in coherency, playing style, and yes results.
I don't see the ABs as a "suck it and see", experimental test-tube environment - we have to do better than that.
Robertson has had success as a head coach. Foster has not. Rather than think about where we'd be if Robertson replicates U20, think about where we are with Foster replicating the Chiefs.
Why? Isn't success at international level important?
There are two approaches for filling jobs: one is promoting from within, and one is recruiting from without - why do you think only promoting from within is valid?
Big jump to that conclusion. As I've said before, I'd be happy for anyone to take over from Foster - on the proviso he delivers better results than Foster over, say, 9 Tests and NZR has a contingency plan if the new bloke fails to do that,which could include sacking him.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior yeah I disagree. We don't see these same issues in high intensity SR games. The players have the skills (look at the difference between Jordan in black vs Jordan in red and black). It's got to come down to AB training, game plan and implementation for mine.
The thing which is really frustrating is that the team can perform. The 3rd quarter against France last year and the 2nd quarter a week or so ago being examples.
Is that a case of Ireland and France relaxing a bit/not being as accurate as they had been? Or the ABs raising their game to a level their opponents couldn't deal with?
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@stodders said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior yeah I disagree. We don't see these same issues in high intensity SR games. The players have the skills (look at the difference between Jordan in black vs Jordan in red and black). It's got to come down to AB training, game plan and implementation for mine.
The thing which is really frustrating is that the team can perform. The 3rd quarter against France last year and the 2nd quarter a week or so ago being examples.
Is that a case of Ireland and France relaxing a bit/not being as accurate as they had been? Or the ABs raising their game to a level their opponents couldn't deal with?
The latter I think. We forced errors in the other team which we exploited. There was a lot more dynamism and precision about our play in those periods.
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@kiwi_expat said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@nzzp said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
When you unpick the "Foster must go" argument and ask how many Tests you'd give a Foster-replacement to improve things (like the win percentage) before he too gets sacked, things get a bit more vague and/or complicated for some reason. Really can't think why if the quality of the coach is a key problem.
You asked this on the other thread, and it's a great challenge.
The consensus was it's not just the losing, but the way we're losing. We seem miles behind other nations, particularly England France Ireland in our attacking and defensive patterns. Our players no longer seem to be better than the opposition at the core skills and vision.
So, a better record, and/or visible improvements in the way we play.
If Foster had the team playing well and we lost to a better side, most folk would accept that as steps on the journey. Right now we're seeing players seem to get worse in the AB environment; muddled thinking, poor skills, woeful kicking, lack of clarity of action and gameplan, and slow speed of thought.
Great post.
NZR were so quick to fire Mitchell and Deans who went through a clean sweep of the Tri-Nations, put 50 points on SA and Australia away. Won the Bledisloe and then lost one game, the semi and were fired. I think it was the only second game they lost that season. I think the All Blacks will be stronger for the changes but a 0-2 loss might be what the All Blacks really need.
You raise a really good point.
It's arguable that the AB's did better when NZR scrapped the "Hire & Fire" mentality and went with Continuity Ted after the RWC2007 debacle but did a drains-up on the state of the ABs at the same time. Needed now.
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@Frank well one thing we don’t have with this coaching set up is consistency in selection. That’s a prime example. Put the best players out there and in that might establish some continuity. That’s beyond rotation especially when you have a series decider in the line.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
Keeping or changing the AB will coach will not fix these issues, at least not in any significant way. However, changing the AB coach could fix the problem of us playing an out of date game plan, which relies on skills and talent we simply don't have anymore.
I think we should aim for a bit more than a "could".
And what's the contingency plan if the next bloke doesn't do any better?
Well, that depends on the candidate, when they are appointed, for how long and what their mandate is.
In my view, the immediate plan should be to appoint someone to squeeze as much juice as possible out of these lemons as possible so that they don't embarrass themselves at the RWC next year. In parallel, you put in place the plan to appoint someone - maybe even the same guy, but I would hope they canvass all possibilities, unlike last time - to do the re-build from 2024 onwards.
In that scenario, the "what if they fail" outcome would be something like not making it out of pool at the RWC or exiting in the quarter finals in embarrassing fashion (i.e. getting pantsed like we were in the 3rd test against Ireland). We are already on this course and so I don't necessarily see this being fatal to whoever takes over continuing on in 2024 - but this will depend upon what the other potential options are.
Honestly, I don't see this scenario playing out because I think (a) between now and the EOYT there will be enough signs of life to carry on with Fozzie and his new assistants (plus whatever changes they may in next while), and (b) by the end of this year, no one would want to come within 100 ft of the role for such a short and (in all likelihood) ultimately doomed campaign - at least not from outside the current coaching group.
So, I think the best that can be expected for those who want Fozzie out is that Schmidt takes over in the new year with the current assistants, plus one or two others (maybe Leon and someone else), to basically put together something that might let us arse our way into a RWC final - looking at you England 2007 and France 2011 - and then Razor takes the reins in 2024, with Schmidt returning to his selector / analyst role.
And if I get a response like "and what if Razor fails", I will have to put you on mute - that is a problem for the future.
Pretty hard to disagree with any of that.
The only thing I'd add is I'd like to see is a full and deep review after this years EOYT on the state of things and some calm sensible decisions made which looks towards maximising RWC2023 outcomes and building post 2023.
Oh and for this to be communicated a wee bit better from NZR than in the past.
I agree that would be great but in my view that is a completely separate question to who should coach the ABs in the next 18 months. As I’ve said earlier in this thread, the deeper issues with respect to skills and talent will take much longer to fix - the current performance and the Foster issue are related but ultimately require a very different solution over a much shorter timeframe.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@Bones said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:
@junior yeah I disagree. We don't see these same issues in high intensity SR games. The players have the skills (look at the difference between Jordan in black vs Jordan in red and black). It's got to come down to AB training, game plan and implementation for mine.
The thing which is really frustrating is that the team can perform. The 3rd quarter against France last year and the 2nd quarter a week or so ago being examples.
The question needs to be asked - what did we actually do during those periods? Well, we asked our forwards to play like forwards and smash their way through the opposition. And we did that with some measure of success. So maybe the issue is not with our forwards per se but that we are asking them to do something other than being forwards…?
