All Blacks head coach reveals the 'most annoying people on the team'
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has revealed the most annoying rugby position in the sport, branding props as 'special people' who need extra management.
New Zealand have the small matter of playing hosts France in the opening game of the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Stade de France tonight, but "Fossie" allowed himself the luxury of reflecting on the most high-maintenance players in the sport at a press conference in Saint-Denis on Thursday.
Foster - himself a former flyhalf - didn't pull his punches.
"Props are the most annoying people on the team, they eat the most food, they take the longest to get up. But they are special people... they are looking forward to strutting their stuff.”
On matters of slightly more import, Foster denied that his side have a point to prove after shipping a record 35-7 in their recent warm-up match with the Springboks in Twickenham two weekends ago.
“I don’t think we have a point to prove in relation to that game. We are always disappointed, we don’t like losing, particularly with the injuries and the cards that caused it to be a very disruptive performance. But it hasn’t altered our trajectory.
"It was a game stuck in the middle of a break for us. It really doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is what we learnt from it. But we always have a point to prove, we can’t hide from that. It’s a very big stage tomorrow, we are a very proud team. We want to play well and we are determined to. We will assess after that and see how we progress in this tournament.
If anything, Foster believes it is Fabien Gatlhie's France who face the real pressure: "There’s no doubt there’s lot of pressure on them, being the hosts. How they respond to that, I’m not sure. The only thing we can control is to make sure we pressure them and play our game, and not get caught up in the emotion of the crowd. It’s no stranger to us, expectation. If we win, we always have that massive expectation to go and do it again. If we lose badly, we have got to deal with all that expectation.
“We have prepared well for how we deal with pressure, but this particular group has got to grow under World Cup pressure, and it is different. We’re proud of the way the guys have gone about their work. We had some clear goals and we’ve ticked off most of those. Now we are ready to go. We want to walk out on to the park with shiny eyes, nice and light, and ready to play. We have been waiting for it. Once the ref blows his whistle, let’s see what happens.”
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Both cards were harsh. Yet again highlighting rugby's inconsistencies and the absurd effect of cards
Go to commentsWhile all this is going on… I’ve been thinking more about the NFL draft system and how to make the commercial elements of the game more sustainable for SA teams who precariously live on the fringe of these developments. SA teams play in Europe now, and are welcome, because there’s a novelty to it. SA certainly doesn’t bring the bucks (like a Japan would to SR) but they bring eyes to it. But if they don’t perform (because they don’t have the money like the big clubs) - it’s easy come easy go… I think there is an element of strategic drafting going on in SA. Where the best players (assets) are sort of distributed amongst the major teams. It’s why we’re seeing Moodie at the Bulls for example and not at his homegrown Western Province. 20-30 years ago, it was all about playing for your province of birth. That has clearly changed in the modern era. Maybe Moodie couldn’t stay in the cape because at the time the Stormers were broke? Or had too many good players to fit him in? Kistchoff’s sabbatical to Ireland and back had financial benefits. Now they can afford him again (I would guess). What I am getting at is - I think SA Rugby needs to have a very strong strategy around how teams equitably share good youth players out of the youth structures. That is SA’s strong point - a good supply of good players out of our schools and varsities. It doesn’t need to be the spectacle we see out of the states, but a system where SA teams and SA rugby decide on where to draft youth, how to fund this and how to make it that it were possible for a team like the Cheetahs (for example) to end up with a team of young stars and win! This is the investment and thinking that needs to be happening at grassroots to sustain the monster meanwhile being created at the top.
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