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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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Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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