Rugby: The New Zealand Football Association announced the “Fawry” takeover of the “All Blacks” team

The third test match between New Zealand and Ireland, in Wellington on July 16, 2022, Marty Melville

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

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

He added, “Our goal is to work with Ian and his team to fully understand, prior to the rugby tournament, what we need to improve performance and what needs to be done from now on. We will start that work immediately.”

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

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

This first defeat had already weakened Ian Foster a little more, who has been around 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 who had already questioned.

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

However, the All Blacks (42-19) did win their first test match against Ireland in Auckland, under former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who some commentators see as an ideal successor to Foster.

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

Earlier on Sunday, Ian Foster’s press conference was canceled without explanation. After the match played on Saturday night, the 57-year-old declined to comment on his future.

In August and September New Zealanders will play the Rugby Championship, which features the major national teams from the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand) each year. They will start with two tests in world champion South Africa on August 6 and 13.

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