Rugby: New Zealand Football Federation announces immediate takeover of All Blacks

The New Zealand Rugby Union announced on Sunday its “immediate” takeover of the All Blacks after their new defeat by Ireland, which was deemed “unacceptable”, which complicates the future of coach Ian Foster.

“Congratulations to Team Ireland on their deserved victory last night, but the All Blacks’ performance in this series was clearly not acceptable, and we know they thought that. We all know that. There is an enormous amount of work to do,” New Zealand rugby coach Mark Robinson said in a statement.

He added, “Our aim is to work with Ian and his team to fully understand, before the Rugby Championship, what we need to do to improve and what needs to be done going forward. We will start that work immediately.”

The All Blacks suffered their second straight home defeat to Ireland (32-22) on Saturday night. It was the first time the New Zealanders had lost consecutive home matches to a European team since the 1994 Tour de France.

It’s also the first time they’ve lost a home Test series against Ireland, who had never won in New Zealand before their success the previous Saturday in Dunedin (23-12).

This first defeat had already weakened Ian Foster a little more, who has been in place since 2020, but has had poor results since last year, with seven defeats in 24 matches, including two against Ireland (29-20) and France (40-25). ) in November 2021 which he had already questioned.

New Zealand has now fallen to fourth place in the world rankings, an unacceptable humiliation in a country with high expectations.

However, the first Test match against Ireland in Auckland was won by the All Blacks (42-19), under former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, whom some commentators see as an ideal successor to Foster.

Foster is likely to explain himself in the coming days to the Federation’s board of directors, who extended his contract last year until next year’s World Cup, a decision that has caused many reviews.

Earlier on Sunday, an Ian Foster press conference was canceled without explanation. After the game on Saturday night, the 57-year-old refused to comment on his future.

In August and September, New Zealanders will compete in the Rugby Championship, which annually brings together the main national teams of the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand). They will start with two Tests in world champions South Africa on August 6 and 13.

Until now, the team was supposed to have a week off before leaving for South Africa.