Former All Blacks coach offers progress report on Joseph Manu's preseason

With the Japanese League One season getting underway this weekend, former All Blacks coach Ian Foster has talked publicly about how Rugby League convert Joseph Manu is finding the transition to the 15’s game. 

Foster, who coached the All Blacks in last year’s narrow Rugby World Cup final defeat at the hands of France, has been enjoying a new role as Toyota Verblitz assistant coach behind another ex-All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen. 

The Toyota Verblitz side is packed with talented world superstars, like Pieter-Steph Du Toit from the Springboks who recently won the World Rugby 15’s Men's Player of the Year. 125 Test former All Black halfback Aaron Smith is also at the club, enjoying his second season at Toyota Verblitz. 

Foster was interviewed on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin about the former Sydney Roosters player’s transition to union. 

“I think he's coming and learning the game. He played a bit as a kid, so he knows a bit about it, but it's a lot of instincts he's got to get right,” Foster said to Devlin on the DSPN podcast. 

“We know that the transition from League to rugby still just doesn't happen overnight, but, but he's picked it up real quick.”

Many fans have discussed Manu's future. After spending time learning the game and understanding his role this year, he may have ambitions to represent New Zealand at the 2027 World Cup with the All Blacks. 

Foster has indicated he hasn’t spoken to Manu about his future decisions but says his intentions are clear. 

“He wants to spend a couple of years learning rugby and getting used to it and then, I guess, revisit what his options are. I haven't spoken to him about it, but I know he's ambitious. I think the good thing now is not to get ahead of yourself when you're making a big transition.”

Manu played centre for the Roosters in the NRL but also spent some games at Fullback from time to time. In the 15’s game, it will be interesting to see where Manu will play considering his physical attributes with the ball in hand. 

When asked about the position Manu is going to play, Foster said that in pre-season he had been playing at centre, but was planning on playing him in a fullback/wing versatile role.

“We're looking at playing him in the sort of full back/wing role to give him a chance to get used to things. But you know, he's been, he's played nearly all our preseason games at centre. He’s dealt with the defensive jobs of that role really well. He's still struggling to find space that he wants to attack, but he's doing a great job,” Foster said.

There have been multiple rugby league players in recent years to try converting to rugby union from league, most recently the inclusion of Joseph Suaalii in the Wallabies squad, after the likes of Sonny Bill Williams, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Suliasi Vunivalu have all made the transition. 

Foster is well aware of the difficulty the transition brings, being part of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s debut for the All Blacks in 2022 against Ireland.

“History shows it's not an easy transition, it also shows that people like Sonny Bill Williams have done it and done it well. And I know we talk a lot about Roger (Tuivasa-Sheck), but let's face it, he did become an All Black, and he played well enough to be there, so he wasn't too far off, but it's but I know Joey's trying to cut his own path.

Foster was asked by Devlin about Manu’s attributes coming over to Rugby Union and how to turn the raw skills into the 15’s game. 

“Some of the instinctive stuff is stuff that we've learned, you can't stand off a breakdown that's happening, so you've got to go in, and there are things like that that you've probably got to get right first or spend a lot of time on that part of the game.”

“We don't have to deal much with him with his ball control and his handling and his offload and all that sort of stuff. He's quick, he's strong. So it's about the running lines and the instinct of stuff around the breakdown, like having a jackal was quite good in preseason last week, I think he won two jackals over the ball, which was important for him."