Positives:
1. Akira Ioane
I admit that I had my doubts about Ioane's quality as a test player, but credit where it's due, he addressed the key concerns about his game. While one swallow does not a summer make, it may be that the team has a viable candidate at blindside. With Squire returning for 2021, the blindside stocks look the healthiest it's been for a while.
2. The wins
There was a lot to be optimistic about in the 3 victories that the All Blacks secured this year, and for all the criticism Foster gets, the team absolutely knocked it out of the park when they had to.
3. Sam Cane
Remember all the bitching and moaning and wailing and gnashing of teeth about whether he was even good enough to start for the All Blacks? Yeah, those people can kindly keep their sewers shut forever, because it's clear they know absolute shit about fuck. Even during the disastrous season for the Chiefs, Cane was logging some impressive numbers (tackle count, tackle success rate, turnovers won, etc. - the only area he was lagging in was metres carried), which
improved at the test level. It's almost as if Super Rugby and test rugby are different beasts and success or failure in one is not an entirely accurate indicator for success or failure in the other.
Negatives:
1. Discipline
This is, to an extent, also a World Rugby issue, as a lot of the discipline problems with the All Blacks came from retaliating against opposition niggles. They clearly handled it well, for the most part, in the return fixture against Argentina - the Tyrel Lomax yellow (where he was lucky not to get a red) was an isolated incident within the context of the game. That said, we can expect those kinds of tactics to continue, since it's clear that the risk:reward ratio encourages it. Why not cheekily slap a hothead like Dane Coles in the face during a ruck? Goad him into losing his shit, because they'll be punished for retaliating.
"Reversing the penalty for retaliation" is something that is dumb as fuck in execution, because it essentially forgives the original offence.
2. The loss to Argentina
It's not the fact that they lost which was frustrating, but the manner in which it happened. You could put down the Brisbane result as basically "it was a wild game." The All Blacks were still well within it, and a lucky bounce of the ball here, a kick that connects there, and we'd be talking about how it was a close call for the All Blacks and that hey, they went 3 wins, 1 draw and no losses against Rennie's lads. In the Pumas game, they were never even given a chance to get into the game.
Overall:
Using the
assessment schedule I used for the mock exams with my most senior year level class (Year 13 Media Studies - gonna miss you, 13MED 2020. One of the best classes I ever taught. Love those girls.) of 0 to 8, I'm willing to give Foster an A4. Next year, he gets to do a resubmission to see if he can get it to M5, M6, E7 or E8.
He's assembled an excellent coaching panel, and when things go well, they're pretty much unplayable. He's also shown significant signs of addressing the concerns highlighted in the only genuine, unqualified failure of the season.
Next steps:
Assuming the regular test schedule is restored next year, incorporating Scott Robertson into the coaching team in an assistant role for the Rugby Championships would be ideal.
Giving players an opportunity to grow into their roles through consistent selection, and providing them an opportunity to respond to a failure in the return fixture against Argentina was a positive step. It shows he is not prone to panic or reactive selections, nor is he too trapped by conventional "wisdom," most of which is pure bullshit anyway. So yes, Ian. More of that, thanks.