Cutting coaches adrift in mid-stream not the NZ way

Search high and low and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an All Blacks coach who has been culledmid term.

The closest New Zealand has come to a sacking was that of JohnMitchell and Robbie Deans, but that came after the 2003 World Cup debacle in Australia and Graham Henry replaced them.

Many otherswalked rather than re-apply: JJ Stewart after the 1976 tour to South Africa; Fred Allen didn’t lose a test but fell out with NZRU big shots so he called it quits after the 1968 French tour.

This time let’s hope the personal hostility towards incumbent coach Ian Foster subsides rather than have a repeat of the vitriol Henry and John Hart had to endure.

Hart lost five tests in a row as All Blacks coach in 1998 and kept the job. Henrywas enemy No 1 after the French quarterfinal defeat in 2007 and went on to win the 2011 World Cup, against France; yes, just.

Laurie Mains had a terrible run in 1994, but got the All Blacks through to the 1995 World Cup final.

While Foster’s All Blacks were being embarrassed at Stade de France on Sunday, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was on his last coaching legs at Manchester United and a day later the poor bloke walked out with $15 million.

The floundering All Black defeats by Ireland and France were every bit as bad as Watford’s 4-1 thumping of United. But obstinacy will prevail, especially after NZ Rugby pulled a swiftie in August by reappointing Foster before the overseas expedition, instead of after Le Tour.

Foster has enough allies on the NZ Rugby board and in its high-performance enclave. They appointed him and his underlings, John Plumtree, BradMooar, Scott McLeod and Greg Feek, at the urging of Steve Hansen who had fostered Foster for eight years.

If Foster is to be moved on, his four assistants would be curtains too.

NZ Rugbymust have known the appointment would be unpopular by blindly ignoring the proven Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie, Scott Robertson and Joe Schmidt. They all knew about three years out that Foster was the anointed one because one of them told me so, and that it was a waste of keystrokes applying.

In the NRL Foster would be toast, but to now defy our rugby history and sever his contract and pay him out for two years isn’t the rugby way. It would be to admit the black suits got it wrong.

In that case theymust push on and hope, pray it doesn’t come unglued againwhen Ireland come south for three tests next year, that it’s a case of lose to France now and beat them at the World Cup!

All of this is taking the heat offwomen’s coach Glenn Moore whose Black Ferns were, to put it bluntly, thrashed in their four tests in Europe.

It seems Foster and his bloc are slow learners. In five tests since England at the 2019 World Cup, the All Blacks have been neutralised by tough-tackling opposition.

After the green tsunami hit them in Dublin, we sat back and at kickoff in Paris were ready to see the revised tactics. Instead, therewere three wonky kicks from our best, Aaron Smith missed touch, Richie Mou´nga and a nervy Jordie Barrett, and bang, try.

Not until after half-time did we see any sort of tactical change, the driving play which was the obvious ploy for them towrestle their way into the game.

Surely the coaches consulted the senior players about this, but to see Dane Coles’ anger on the bench as it went custard-like had me wondering.

Anyway, the public clamour for change will haunt the next two years.

There are systemic problemswith New Zealand forward play through all levels. It has got too loose. Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay put emphasis on driving forward play, but for most it is secondary, especially so at Super Rugby level, and we don’t have the guys coming in to win at test level.

It has been an arduous season, but not the worst in All Blacks’ history.

Even so, rugby fans, chastened enough by this Covid germ, have been spooked by the last two games, watching the All Blacks capsize in three of their four toughest tests.

We can’t figure out the top XV nor the optimum loose trio nor midfield combination, nor where is our locking depth?

Then there’s the risk of taking older warhorses through to 2023.

It was scary when France led 24-6 at half-time in Paris.

That eclipsed the 17-point record half-time deficits against Ireland in Chicago in 2016 and Australia in Brisbane in 2011.

Only once have the ABs come back to win from 10 points ormore down, against Ireland in 2013 when Aaron Cruden slotted his second conversion.