I agree they are scapegoats, though not necessarily just fosters scapegoats, I would say they are the nzru scapegoats. They had to make some changes to show they were doing something. But it's certainly not clear they made the right ones, or all the right ones. Their process probably involved deciding what the minimum change was to keep the public at bay. Getting rid of two assistants and not replacing one was the best they could afford. Foster couldn't have taken over any of the other roles, so attack coach was the easy decision . Plumtree reviews poorly last year so if they got rid of him it would look like they knew what they were doing, plus they probably couldn't find a decent defence coach to replace McLeod
Interested to hear what are the things you are seeing that point to foster being a bigger problem than his assistants. I'm grateful this forum exists where people provide reasonable and humble comments as opposed to the blood thirsty frenzy from people that have no idea on stuff comments and elsewhere.
I mean I have my reasons for thinking fosters head coaching hasn't been the best but I'm interested to hear yours. I also have plenty of reasons for suggesting the assistants have been poor, that the opposition has been good, that the players aren't as good as what they used to be, that there's not such great evidence to suggest that robertson would be the degree of savior people think he will be.
Also I think its really not worth one's while to care so much about the World Cup that they are willing to support the opposition in the hope that the coach gets dropped so we have more chance of winning the World Cup. At the absolute best we will go from 15 to 30 per cent chance of winning. Even the 2015 all blacks didn't go into the World Cup with more than 50 per cent odds of winning. So it seems like self sabotage to put all your eggs in the World Cup basket when your team will most likely lose anyway. Better to enjoy games outside the World Cup too.
I don't know where to start, to be honest, there's so much to say about this NZRU trainwreck that started after the Lions series and got even worse after the travesty that was Ian Foster's appointment back in December 2019...I will however try to summarize my thoughts in connection thereof:
- Plumtree and Mooar were Foster's scapegoats because he chose them and not NZRU. Remember when they were lauded by Foster as being part of an ideal coaching setup that ticks all the boxes? Ironically, although one of the reasons for which Razor's application as All Blacks HC was rejected was that his proposed coaching setup was supposedly weaker than Foster's...now both Plumtree and Mooar have been sacked, while Jason Ryan has been appointed as the All Blacks forwards coach;
- The first major mistake that Foster made was appointing Sam Cane as Captain, without a minute of rugby being played in NZ that season. Sam Cane was a great All-Black, but at the time of his nomination and surely after, he wasn't probably near the Top 3 opensides in NZ. The problem with his appointment was/is that the team had to carry him in the starting lineup, forcing other players to be played out of position (i.e. Ardie Savea, Papali'i) and destabilizing the whole back row;
- He persisted with players way past their prime and has not developed any talent NZ oozes with. Just to give you an example, although both Whitelock and Retallick are aging, I don't see any younger lock to have been granted a significant amount of game time ever since he took the job;
- His head coaching record in SR is abysmal and when it comes to the All Blacks, it could have been even worse had not been for Italy, US, Tonga or Fiji. In comparison, Razor's coaching abilities proved to be phenomenal, as he won with the Crusaders 6 SR championships in a row, with either aging or departing All Blacks...how many SR trophies did Todd Blackadder win with one of the finest players the All Backs have ever seen?
- Where are now the members of the old boys club that heavily advertised for Foster (re)appointment? One of the most stupid mistakes the NZRU has ever done was reappointing Foster prior to the 2021 Northern Tour, but Sir Steve Hansen told the public it was a no brainer...;
- I don't buy the argument that the All Blacks players are not that good...in my humble opinion, the team is poorly selected and coached;
- The bottom line is that, strictly playing wise, they need to select the best players for each position and not go the out-of-position route anymore.
Sorry if my message came too long, but it saddens me to see the All Blacks in such a poor state.