'I've sat quiet and I've toed the line': Ian Foster doubles down on NZR call

Ian Foster has doubled down on his call for the announcement of the All Blacks coach beyond 2023 to be made following this year's World Cup and no earlier.

Following a historically poor start to the All Balcks' 2022 international season, New Zealand Rugby launched a review into the team and caching group, ultimately backing Ian Foster "100 percent" through until the 2023 World Cup.

Recent murmurs and comments however have caused a significant enough disruption within the camp for the coach to speak out, calling for NZR to keep their word and prove their support is 100 percent behind him and his staff without letting external voices have such a heavy influence on their decision making.

When The Platform later asked if he felt he'd done the right thing by speaking out, Foster doubled down: "Absolutely. I'm not trying to do anything overtly clever here, I'm just trying to express what the All Blacks head coach thinks of what's happening here at the moment.

"It's about my team," Foster said. "One of the All Blacks' big rocks, values, call it whatever you like, that we have is that the team comes first and the decisions that we make is about the team and for me when I know that things are happening that are impacting on my group, my role is to poke my head up and I guess say what I think.

"I've sat quiet and I've toed the line listening to this conversation and debate and all my management is hearing is that other people are determining the timelines for what happens in this team.

"What I'm saying may not change a lot, but I've said what I thought and I guess I'll be judged for that."

In a previous interview on Thursday, Foster had alluded to Scott Robertson's comments on the All Blacks coaching role - which many took as a strong indication that the Crusaders coach had received some sort of confirmation that he would lead the All Blacks in 2024 - by conceded "It does seem to be reasonably obvious".

Foster again alluded to the six-time Super Rugby champion and any other All Black coach hopefuls, expressing his views that all must bide their time and respect New Zealand Rugby's processes.

"I believe that if people really want to coach this All Blacks team then they will be there whenever the board decides them to be there.

"I think my job as head coach of the All Blacks is to inform them and I guess inform the public of what I think is the right outcome for this team right now. People might not agree with that, and that's ok, but at least I've said what i think is right for this team.

"Again, if it doesn't happen as a post-World Cup decision, that's ok, we'll go to our next mantra which is 'we'll have a fight but we'll disagree and commit' and then we'll just roll our sleeves up and make sure and get some reassurances that this process won't disrupt our campaign with nothing happening behind the scenes that undermines this group going into France.

"Because let's be clear, there's one thing that I want, I want us to hop on a plane to France and we want to go and win a World Cup and make this country proud of us.