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'Ashamed': Ex-All Blacks player defends Ian Foster on Twitter
By Liam Heagney
Former All Blacks winger Julian Savea has jumped to the defence of Ian Foster, stating that he is ashamed of how the coach is currently being treated by the New Zealand media. The All Blacks head into next Saturday’s Rugby Championship round two game versus the Springboks in Johannesburg on the back of five losses in their last six matches.
It’s a situation that has generated much comment about the position of Foster as All Blacks coach and it has been speculated that this weekend’s tour-ending match in South Africa will be his last in charge.
It was under Steve Hansen - with Foster as an assistant - that 2015 World Cup winner Savea won the last of his 54 All Blacks caps in 2017 before he headed to France in 2018 for a couple of seasons.
Now back at the Hurricanes and currently playing for Wellington in Mitre 10 Cup, he has taken to social media to defend the coach of an All Blacks side that his brother Ardie plays for at No8. Writing on Twitter, Savea said: “Shocked and disturbed at some of the comments and remarks I've seen and heard about Ian Foster on social media lately.
“In a country where mental health is a big issue, where 72 per cent of suicides are men and a high number of depression amongst men, you would think people would be a bit kinder and think about their words before they make remarks on someone's integrity, appearance and character, especially when they don't know them on a personal level. I'm ashamed that this is how a human is treated and dragged in the media here in NZ.”
In its first 13 hours online, the message received nearly 100 replies, more than 250 retweets and in excess of 3,000 likes. Savea himself knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of criticism, especially during his time overseas with Toulon.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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